Flash Voyager GTR 32 GB not working

Yesterday, when I was working on some files on my Flash Voyager GTR 32 Gb, it stop working.

Now the drive name is gone, and when I try to access it, it says: "The disk in drive X is not formatted. Do you wan to format it now?"

I have tried three different computers, same error.

I hope I can save data there is on it!

I'm interested in purchasing the Corsair GTR flash drive but I found a review on Amazon.com that complains of the same problem the OP is having. Is Corsair aware of this issue, and has it been fixed permanently in the new drives being manufactured? I'm not going to buy until I know there is a permanent fix. I've never had this problem with my other flash drives.

I am quoting the Amazon.com review here:

" I had problems after about a month, where in rare instances the GTR's firmware would become corrupt if the device was unplugged while performing a read/write operation. The status LED would also blink continuously, and the unit would show up on Windows Explorer as a removable device asking for media to be inserted, and it couldn't be accessed nor formatted.

Since it happens so rarely, I can't be 100% sure as to the exact set of conditions that trigger the problem, but what I do know is that there's a utility out there called "IT1168 DtMPTool V1.68.1.0" which can rewrite the GTR's firmware and possibly undo the problem (if only temporarily, until the next hiccups). (Hint: Install the utility, run it, use "F3 Enum" to detect the GTR, then right click on the the detected device that shows up on the list and select start.) "

I would appreciate a clear response as to a permanent firmware fix from Corsair.

Thanks,

ITGuyIT

RAM GUY

I did download a 3rd party software to try to recover my data on the stick. It did so for most of the doc, pdf, xls etc files I had but far from all. Other files type was not found at all, so alot of data lost!

ITGuyIT

I did download the IT1168 DtMPTool V1.68.1.0. After some struggling with reginonal settings on the computer, I did managed to get it up and running. Unfortunately I cannot find my USB stick or any other healthy stick that I have tried when pressing "F3 Enum"

Any suggestion?

@REFVIK - Sorry I don't have any suggestions for you. It's pretty inexcusable for the Corsair GTR flash drives to have this problem. You should be asking for your money back instead of a replacement. This is a defctive product as far as I'm concerned. It will keep on happening.

@RAM GUY - What is Corsair doing to fix this issue PERMANENTLY? None of my flash drives have ever screwed up. Not even the crappy ancient ones I received for free at Tech shows over the years.

I'm in the market for the fastest flash drive, so I don't mind paying more to get it. I used Google to find reviews for the Corsair GTR and found these problems with it.

I would appreciate an answer from Corsair by the end of the week, or I'm moving on from Corsair products permanently. To not have a permanent fix is inexcusable and your customers deserve better. Please escalate this issue if you don't have a permanent solution. I'm not playing the RMA game as I value my time.

Thanks,

ITGuyIT

@REFVIK - Sorry I don't have any suggestions for you. It's pretty inexcusable for the Corsair GTR flash drives to have this problem. You should be asking for your money back instead of a replacement. This is a defctive product as far as I'm concerned. It will keep on happening.

 

@RAM GUY - What is Corsair doing to fix this issue PERMANENTLY? None of my flash drives have ever screwed up. Not even the crappy ancient ones I received for free at Tech shows over the years.

 

I'm in the market for the fastest flash drive, so I don't mind paying more to get it. I used Google to find reviews for the Corsair GTR and found these problems with it.

 

I would appreciate an answer from Corsair by the end of the week, or I'm moving on from Corsair products permanently. To not have a permanent fix is inexcusable and your customers deserve better. Please escalate this issue if you don't have a permanent solution. I'm not playing the RMA game as I value my time.

 

Thanks,

 

ITGuyIT

Amazon is not really a good source of technical information on electronics. And, 1 person posting 1 review is certainly not a sign of a firmware problem with our flash drives. What you are likely seeing is 1 user with a drive that needs to be RMAd.

My problem is not to get a new one or money back, but to get my data that is "still" on the flash drive. There was alot of valuable data that can be hard to get back otherwise.

I did take a backup, but that is about to-three weeks old...

Any suggestion to help me to restore data?

My problem is not to get a new one or money back, but to get my data that is "still" on the flash drive. There was alot of valuable data that can be hard to get back otherwise.

 

I did take a backup, but that is about to-three weeks old...

 

Any suggestion to help me to restore data?

As RAM GUY noted, you will need to use 3rd party data recovery tools. There are some freeware options and the choice of which to use is up to you. As for paid options, it depends on how much the data is worth and how much you are willing to spend.

@REFVIK - Sorry I don't have any suggestions for you. It's pretty inexcusable for the Corsair GTR flash drives to have this problem. You should be asking for your money back instead of a replacement. This is a defctive product as far as I'm concerned. It will keep on happening.

 

@RAM GUY - What is Corsair doing to fix this issue PERMANENTLY? None of my flash drives have ever screwed up. Not even the crappy ancient ones I received for free at Tech shows over the years.

 

I'm in the market for the fastest flash drive, so I don't mind paying more to get it. I used Google to find reviews for the Corsair GTR and found these problems with it.

 

I would appreciate an answer from Corsair by the end of the week, or I'm moving on from Corsair products permanently. To not have a permanent fix is inexcusable and your customers deserve better. Please escalate this issue if you don't have a permanent solution. I'm not playing the RMA game as I value my time.

 

Thanks,

 

ITGuyIT

I am here because I just informed Amazon I am returning the 32GB Corsair GTR and wondering if anyone else was having these problems so did a simple search. ITGuyIT you are right, if simple searches show up that this is indeed a problem with the Corsair product then Corsair Tech support must know about it and then do not admit to it.

Amazon is not really a good source of technical information on electronics. And, 1 person posting 1 review is certainly not a sign of a firmware problem with our flash drives. What you are likely seeing is 1 user with a drive that needs to be RMAd.

It's not just amazon, I have the same problem. so do others who have already posted on this forum for which you played 'dumb' and offered RMA. And so have others who posted in other forums and haven't got here yet.

I simply can't believe you know about the problem and are not warning people.

If there is a specific set of circumstances then let us know so we can take action to prevent being caught. If you do not then I guess people will just point all Corsair product reviews to these threads and the buyer in all likelihood will not want the hassle and move on elsewhere.

I have absolutely no problem at all that some or very few of any USB drive fails.

But, I find it hard to understand why Corsair do not support a utility which can rewrite the GTR's firmware and possibly undo the problem or/and also a software to restore lost data...

This series of USB drive has been very popular because of its performance and its not uncommon to see some have problems with it because of the Volume sold (More than 100K per month).

Our return rate on the drive is less than 1/2 of 1% so I dont see any issue other than some who may as stated previously have a failing drive.

 

As a side note we do test all returned drives and look at the failures to see what may have caused the failure and if there is anything that can be done on our side to prevent them in the future.

We do this on every product that we manufacture as I am sure most manufacturers do or should do.

Never said, nor doubt that the majority work or have happy owners.

On the other hand you seem slowly inching towards accepting some people seem to have a problem.

Now please try inching a little more forward and accept that these people don't have a complete failure of the drive but are experiencing this limbo state described above.

Then tell us WHY this happens. Under what conditions. So that those that are happy with the drive when it is working take care not to recreate those conditions and lose data.

Or are those less than 1/2 or 1% not really a care to Corsair to hang then out in the wind to dry? Because if that's the attitude I am sure their comments on your products will reduce the number sold to levels where Corsair starts to care.

Is the return percentage really that small?

I'm on my 3rd Flash Voyager GTR (32GB). The first was okay for a few months, then suddenly it stopped working. It had the same symptoms as the Amazon guy, constant blinking light and being inaccessible by anything pretty much.

I used DtMPTool to try and fix it. It seemed to work at first. Despite the light acting different than it should, it was looking okay because nothing was reporting errors anywhere. Soon enough, I realized that part of the stick couldn't be copied to, and stuff I did copy to it, got corrupted when copying off. At this point, the stick was a write-off, and I had no faith in the DtMPTool software from this point onwards because it obviously didn't really fix the problem.

I sent it back to corsair (RMA) and got a replacement. Within a week, the same thing happened with the constant blinking, etc. I then sent it back again and got another replacement.

I mainly use this stick as a portable Memory Unit for the Xbox360 (for save games, etc).

The first error happened when I was using it on my friend's Xbox360, while shutting down. I've used it on this console with no problems before. The second time was when I plugged it into another friend's Xbox360. I've also used my sticks on my (and other) Xbox360's without issue. And I've used my other (non- Corsair) USB stick a hell of a lot on these consoles and PC, without issue.

I received my current replacement stick recently, but I REALLY would like to know how much of an issue this is, and if it's been sorted or not. This has happened to me twice in a short amount of time, and other people have had this issue too.

A USB stick's firmware being wiped at any seemingly random time should never happen, and seems to me a BIG freaking problem. Has this even been acknowledged as an issue by Corsair? At least they should offer the customers a tool to fix the problem and hopefully not loose any content in the process. I've lost precious data off this thing one too many times already.

The Flash Voyager GTR (32GB) is otherwise a fantastic stick, but if these issues continue, I won't have a choice but to avoid Corsair branded sticks in the future, and I'm sure others would do the same.

" I had problems after about a month, where in rare instances the GTR's firmware would become corrupt if the device was unplugged while performing a read/write operation. "

It's his fault, you shouldn't unplug a USB drive while it's active, regardless if it's set up for performance or not.

Always wait, and use Safely Remove Hardware or right-click the drive and eject.

And BTW, no product is perfect, and if you go looking for issues you will always find them.

The vast majority who are happy rarely post.

I don't know of any other manufacturer who is confident enough in their product to offer a 10 year warranty.

It's his fault, you shouldn't unplug a USB drive while it's active, regardless if it's set up for performance or not.

 

Always wait, and use Safely Remove Hardware or right-click the drive and eject.

 

And BTW, no product is perfect, and if you go looking for issues you will always find them.

 

The vast majority who are happy rarely post.

 

I don't know of any other manufacturer who is confident enough in their product to offer a 10 year warranty.

"Always wait, and use Safely Remove Hardware or right-click the drive and eject."

1) doesn't explain why people owning several different USB drives (myself included) never experienced such problems

2) Many devices are used in equipment that accepts USB drives and doesn't have a Safely Remove Hardware option. Are you suggesting that Corsair drives are fit only for PCs? Wow, Go Corsair put that on your advertising and watch sales soar.

what a joke...

"And BTW, no product is perfect, and if you go looking for issues you will always find them."

er, the issues found us, certainly didn't ask for them or go looking for them.

Anwsers, on the other hand, went looking found none save RMA.

what a joke...

Ramzes

You are pushing the rules of the forum, please refrain from name calling or you will be banned.

 

Insomniack made some good points, based on what you posted. He did not make derogatory comments about you personally.

Come on, I don't resort to name calling or offensive language here or anywhere else on the net - it's puerile and shows a lack of intelligence.

However, a joker is a person that jokes and that is how I sarcastically view his comments. I mean really, the comments/advice were next to useless.

Also is his comment "It's his fault," not implying the guy was stupid or a fool for doing something? I think that's no more or less derogatory than joker.

Still, this is off-topic so I will refrain from such direct language in future and edited the post above

I have a FlashVoyager GTR and died on me today. It keeps on blinking the blue LED and when I plug it in to a new usb or I uninstall it a then install it again it's no longer a Corsair. It says xxxxxxx U168 Controller...

Need help...i hope i don't loose any data.

I have a FlashVoyager GTR and died on me today. It keeps on blinking the blue LED and when I plug it in to a new usb or I uninstall it a then install it again it's no longer a Corsair. It says xxxxxxx U168 Controller...

 

Need help...i hope i don't loose any data.

The only solution I know of was given by IT guy and is (on this thread I think).

It works but you lose all the data. That was my case anyway.

It works but who knows how or when it will happen again.

The only solution I know of was given by IT guy and is (on this thread I think).

It works but you lose all the data. That was my case anyway.

It works but who knows how or when it will happen again.

I wouldn't call that a solution. If it's anything like what I went through, it seem like it's a fix, nothing really reporting problems, but, amongst other things, when copying data off the "fixed" stick data gets corrupted.

I am sorry that has happened but we do not promise compatibility with these types of devices only with desktop computers. But yes the return rate is very low, however we are checking into these reports to see if we can isolate the problems some have seen.

And to RAMGUY, I serious hope you guys are looking into this, because it is a serious issue. Also, this blinking issue ALSO happens on PC. I just happen to use it a lot on my/friends consoles. I strongly believe that there is a serious flaw in this stick's firmware or hardware design that causes this. Like I've said before, A sticks firmware should never get wiped or corrupt just from normal use (especially after only a week, in my case the second time). Even unplugging sticks before "ejecting" or during copying shouldn't do that.

Corsair is a well known and trusted brand. I hope a real fix for this is in the works. Saying you don't promise compatibility with anything other then PCs is a bit of a hollow answer. It's a USB device, it should work with USB devices other then PCs.

I've had 2 x 64gb standard drives fail and RMA'd, Corsair upgraded me for free to a 64gbGTR at the last RMA which is very good of them.

That was back in June, that drive has been showing signs of failing for the past 2 months. It bacame unreadable 3 weeks ago so i formatted it (not a simple task if you want to keep it FAT32) but today it has failed again completely giving message "You need to format the disk in drive". RMA time again.

1. I've lost data

2. i spent a lot of time trying to format and replacing data...on 3 drives.

3. I live in the UK, the drive gets RMA'd to the Netherlands. I pay return shipping (£5) and it takes (usually) 2 weeks x 3.

4. I always...always remove device safely.

5. Drive only ever gets used on PC's.

I'm a computer Tech running my own company. I paid top dollar because i rely on this device for backing up data etc. i have 2 other branded drives that i have to use (neither have failed) because i just cannot trust corsair drive.

Oh well....here i go again!