Bricked Thumb Drive

[nicedude]

Found a computer by the dumpster now that is low cost computing

Hey you might want to take note that it is not the best idea to not have the motherboard in a case and you for sure need to make sure nothing metal ever touches it and grounds or shorts stuff out.

And since it was a 20GB drive that just bonked out that tells me it is maybe 3-5 years old and it might just be that it died of old age as most hard drives are only under guarantee for 3 years with a few giving 5 years, and we all know that stuff breaks right after the warranty expires

Hope you get your new 80GB HDD working with an OS

If I can help you out in any way feel free to PM me and ask as I am pretty knowledgeable about PC hardware issues.

[C.S.Cameron]

Thanks Nicedude:
Transcend sent me to this site:
http://www.transcendusa.com/Support/DLCenter/index.asp
Where I downloaded 'Recovery Utility' for V10
It looked like it was going work, took about 3 hours to run, said it had completed, but no change to the USB.
I am having a hard time formatting the new hard drive,
Guy has all sorts of personal data on it, Bank and Tax records, vacation photos...
Found his e-mail address and have asked if he really wants to trash the drive, have not heard back yet.
I don't think I'll just toss my old drive in the trash, wondering how to wipe a drive that doesn't spin, hammer I guess