USB stick acting up

[Toril S]

Hello friends!
I have a 16 GB Kingston USB 3.0 stick that is half full of songs, and some styles. It has worked fine, but now it is acting up!When I play songs from it on my PC there are pops and other noises, glitches and so on. I tried other files that I know are OK, but they stop playing. Sounds as if the stick is not able to keep up the speed any longer.
Cam upi reccp,emd real good quality USB drives please. I have a 4 GB USB 2.0 stick, and this one never gave me any problems.

[PierreSW]

Could it be the same phenomenon I have with the AUDIO RECORDER?
I also could not play the files without strange sounds.
you should report this to Yamaha, the more we are complaining,
the more likely Yamaha is to do something about it

Regards Pierre

[overover]

Hello friends!
I have a 16 GB Kingston USB 3.0 stick that is half full of songs, and some styles. It has worked fine, but now it is acting up!When I play songs from it on my PC there are pops and other noises, glitches and so on. I tried other files that I know are OK, but they stop playing. Sounds as if the stick is not able to keep up the speed any longer.
Cam upi reccp,emd real good quality USB drives please. I have a 4 GB USB 2.0 stick, and this one never gave me any problems.

Hi Toril,

What you could try:

Copy the entire contents of this Kingston USB stick into a new folder on your computer. If you are talking about Audio songs, test whether they can be played normally from this new folder via an Audio player on the computer or whether they also sound incorrect there.

Reformat the USB stick (either in FAT32 format on the computer or, better, directly on the keyboard. (All data on the stick will be deleted!)

Try making new Audio recordings on the USB stick and, if everything is obviously okay with the previously copied data on the computer, copy this data back to the stick if necessary.

If you're lucky, the USB stick will work as usual again. Otherwise it would be better not to use this stick anymore (at least on the keyboard) and to label it accordingly (or to dispose of it completely to prevent later problems with important data).


Best regards,
Chris

[Toril S]

Thanks Chris. Will try that later today😀

[Toril S]

Pierre, the audio recorder on all my keyboards are OK. The USB stick is the trouble. It now says it is wright protected, so I can't send files to it! I never did anytning like that to it. This has happened before. I suspect the keyboards of distroying the sticks, It is in FAT32, but is behaving strangely and the songs on it have glitches. Since USB is the way we usually use to transfer files, and even play styles from, I really hope Yamaha will pay more attention to this. Of course, it may also be the computer that damage it, I have a "new" windows 10 computer now.

[Amwilburn]

Flash drives have a limited number of writes; usually somewhere between 10,000 and 100,000 writes. When it starts behaving like that, there's a very short time left for most brands where the usb data is unrecoverable; the reason I usually buy Kingston is most of the time, at least I can still read from the stick (for a while at least).

It's time to copy all contents onto your pc as a backup ,then on to another stick! I usually do this before there's any data loss, but last time I didn't get to it in time and lost *some* data (I'd backed up most of it)

I'm on my 8th "Clavinova" stick :p

Mark

[Toril S]

Thanks Mark. I have backed up the files. Ladt time this happened to a stick I tried to format it to get it back to normal but it could not be formatted.

[Amwilburn]

No, once it's corrupted, even formatting won't do much... the lifespan is done.

Please note that you can reach end of life on a USB stick (and even a hard drive) much more quickly if it's nearly full; I had a 2 yr old external 2GB drive that died very early (Toshiba); turns out it was my own fault for stuffing it entirely full. 90% unrecoverable 
Lost nearly all of my game saves

So the fact that yours was only half full, you probably were able to use it for 7-10 years?

[Toril S]

I have had it only one year! I have another flash drive that is at least 8 years. I use it all the time, and it s still going strong. This flash drive collapse thing is really making me nervous!!

[Amwilburn]

Only 1 year? I'd contact the manufacturer to see if it's still under warranty! (or perhaps even the retailer your purchased it from)

[Toril S]

Well, now I am at a loss! ANOTHER usb stick died on me tonight! It won't be recognized on the computer, and not on the Genos. I am thunderstruck!

[Toril S]

Mark, I was able to extract the data from the stick. I lost some of the files, but had a backup. The stick was the least expensive of the Kingston models, so I will just forget it Stick number 2 suddenly refused to show up on the computer and on Genos. I formatted it on the computer and it now works fine again! But this gave me a scare! Chris, thanks for the very helpful instruction!

[Al Ram]

If you were able to recover most or some of the info . . . . . i would just throw away the USB stick.

No need to risk using it either in your computer or much less your keyboard.

Have a great day. 

[ticktock]

I also had a Kingston 16 gb suddenly became write protected when 1/4 full and after 2 yrs. I was able copying the contents to another one.
I have been using an 8 gb Kingston now with about 6 gb in it since 2015 without problem. This one is with my KB.
Ted

[Toril S]

Thanks Al and Ted.

[JohnS (Ugawoga)]

Hi Toril
Look on Google it

Disk drill free -- It is a little program that does the jobby.
This will recover any files on your stick that is lost.

All the best
John

[Toril S]

Thanks John😀

[MarkF_48]

Toril, is it by any chance very dry where you are? Kinda wondering if static electricity might have been a factor to damaging/scrambling the USB sticks. Lately has been dry where I am and if I touch something after getting up from a particular chair, I can make a 6mm spark jump from my fingertip to an appliance. I once damaged a bass amplifier with static electricity just picking up the instrument cord to plug into a guitar. Had to replace an IC OpAmp in the amplifier. I'm very careful in dry weather now for fear of damaging my gear and try to touch something grounded to discharge myself before touching my gear.

Are you being careful about removing USB sticks from your computer and using the "Eject/Safe to Remove' function to ensure no data transfer is going on when you remove it? This got me once with an SDCard that I removed while it was writing data and corrupted some files.

[Toril S]

Hello Mark! I have been super static all my life! Nothing really helps. Often there is an audible pop and a spark when I touch something. Windows 10 has no safe removal of sticks, but I always turn off the keyboard before removing a stick from it.

[EileenL]

I use windows 10 and I have the Safe to remove USB on mine.

[JohnS (Ugawoga)]

Toril, is it by any chance very dry where you are? Kinda wondering if static electricity might have been a factor to damaging/scrambling the USB sticks. Lately has been dry where I am and if I touch something after getting up from a particular chair, I can make a 6mm spark jump from my fingertip to an appliance. I once damaged a bass amplifier with static electricity just picking up the instrument cord to plug into a guitar. Had to replace an IC OpAmp in the amplifier. I'm very careful in dry weather now for fear of damaging my gear and try to touch something grounded to discharge myself before touching my gear.

Are you being careful about removing USB sticks from your computer and using the "Eject/Safe to Remove' function to ensure no data transfer is going on when you remove it? This got me once with an SDCard that I removed while it was writing data and corrupted some files.

Hi
What is your name --- is it "Van Der Graph Generator"!!!

[JohnS (Ugawoga)]

I use windows 10 and I have the Safe to remove USB on mine.

Come on Eileen , i bet you could make the sparks fly!!!

[JohnS (Ugawoga)]

Hi
With usb Sticks it is always best to eject them where the hidden icons are and then pull them out.
Sometimes i just pull them out and all generally is ok
You can even scan them to see if there are errors.
I must say Torill that the Disc Drill got all my files back when my USB did not work and said i had errors

All the best
John     Well you will have to do a Nikola Tessla and make them sparks fly

[MarkF_48]

Hi
What is your name --- is it "Van Der Graph Generator"!!!

I did retire from a power utility company and did make many sparks while working there!!!
https://youtu.be/MqICjzh-cgQ

[adrianed]

General comment
Windows 10 does have a safe removal procedure and also does Windows 11 in the hidden icons bottom right on the screen
Adrian

[MarkF_48]

Along with the removal thingy in the taskbar, most all versions of Windows can safely eject a USB drive or other removable media by right clicking the device in Explorer.

[overover]

General comment
Windows 10 does have a save removal procedure and also does Windows 11 in the hidden icons bottom left on the screen
Adrian

Hi all,

On Windows 10, the "Safely Remove Hardware" feature can be permanently displayed in the taskbar as follows:

Settings > Personalization > Taskbar > Notification Area > Select which icons appear on the taskbar)

See also the attached pictures. (In Windows 11 it works almost the same)


Best regards,
Chris

[attachment deleted by admin]

[Toril S]

Thanks i believed it was gone!

[Toril S]

Friends, I didn't need to go into settings, I just dragged the icon from the hidden icons to the task bar

[adrianed]

Hi Toril S
That's a good idea if you want it visible
Makes me wonder why we don't do things that we know how to do sometimes, I have similar problems sometimes and it takes a prompt from something else to make me try it
Adrian