Off Topic: USB gone u/s
 

I have a USB which will not register when I plug it in.

Have also tried plugging it in before firing up my PC.

Have taken it to the IT guy at my local hospital and he hasn't got a solution

Have I lost my photos forever? ..comment invited

Probably, those things either work or don't work.

I've used this mob before for recovering (successfully) from flash drives.
http://www.techneticsdata.com.au/

If it is a USB harddrive (as opposed to a flash drive), then you can try to move the drive itself to a different enclosure to see if it will work.

If it does not register at all, chances are that the USB storage controller in the enclosure is broken.

give it a shake next to your ear to see if you can hear if anything is loose - i lost a considerable amount of work on a usb a year and a bit ago, and the problem was that something vital got loose and it never worked again. Also check if the usb drive on your computer is all clear and not gunked up with anything, and if all of those seemingly obvious things don't work, take up Dave's idea - all your photos are still there, it just takes someone with the right touch to get them!!!

Delete the device under devices and replug it back in.

Recovery by a sep machine might be a good course of action, driver issues always cause issues.

Believe it or not you can recover off flash drives, depends on the format of the drive and how cheap the flash drive is.

I've recovered multiple times, but not use the drive for non urgent stuff since.

Hence I use Flickr for full uploaded images

You don't work in IT do you?

Anyone working in IT would be laughing :o

please keep in mind this is coming from someone with very little knowledge of computer hardware...

It could actually be the usb plug on the computer and not the usb drive - have you tried it on another computer? or have you tried something else in the same plug?

Well I'm glad you're laughing, cause all I did was tell my experiences and what actually worked for me... :rolleyes:

Perhaps you would like to hear the story of the person who emptied a fire extinquisher onto their PC when it came out of hibernation mode and the screen lit up....

Some card readers have issues with XP if they use the generic USB driver. Using a reder with proprietry drivers is much less prone to issue, If this fails, leave the card in the camera, and download from the camera.

since we are on the topic of USB,

I once bought a small USB from officework, maybe 4gb for $15 dollars - I think the brand is Lexar. I left it in my shirt pocket once and it ended up going through the washing machine. After when I was hanging the shirt I realised and tried to throw it back into the sofa from the front yard and it landed on the floor. Thought there was no way it was ever going to work again (water + drop on floor). Waited 2 or 3 days and then tried it - and it worked!