Thank you all so much for your responses.
@Nmath:
I used a Windows 10 PC in my local library where Windows Explorer was able to access both flash drives, but only in a very restricted sense. With the 128 MB drive, the drive was recognised and displayed as a drive and I was able thereby to find out that only 27 MB has been used although neither folders nor individual files were displayed when the drive icon was clicked. With the 1 GB drive, again this showed as an icon within Windows Explorer. In this case.the drive icon did not show how much of the drive capacity had been used nor were icons displayed for the folders and files on the drive when the drive icon was clicked.
I have now installed Gnome Disk Utility which reports the following.
When the 128 MB drive is connected into the USB port, the utility :-
a) recognises when the drive is connected;
b) places an icon for it in its left hand pane labelled Drive, sub-labelled USB Flash Disk;
c) correctly reports the Model as USB Flash Disk (2.00);
d) Media and Size are blank, just two "-"s for each entry;
e) the serial number is reported as USB Flash Disk (2.00);
f) Volumes is just a single blue block labelled No Media;
g) again Size is listed as ust two "-"s;
h) Device is reported as /dev/sdc;
i) Contents is again listed as ust two "-"s.
This old flash drive does not(!) have an "I am on" LED.
When the flash drive is disconnected, the utility removes the icon for it from its left hand pane.
When the 1 GB drive is connected into the same USB port, the utility :-
a) recognises when the drive is connected;
b) places an icon for it in its left hand pane labelled 1.0 GB Drive, sub-labeeled Verbatim Store 'n' Go;
c) correctly reports the Model as Verbatim Store 'n' Go (1.00);
d) Size is reported as 1.0 GB (1,010,826,752 bytes);
e) the field labeeled Media does not appear;
f) an alphanumeric serial number is reported;
g) Volumes is just a single blue block labelled 1.0 GB Unknown;
h) Size is again reported as 1.0 GB (1,010,826,752 bytes);
h) Device is reported as /dev/sdc;
i) Contents is reported as Unknown.
This old flash drive does(!) have an "I am on" LED which flashes twice immediately after insertion and then remains unblinkingly lit.
When the flash drive is disconnected, the utility removes the icon for it from its left hand pane.
@James S:
Using the lsusb command we have, for the 128 MB drive :-
kub@kub-SATELLITE-L870-18V:~$ lsusb
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 8087:0024 Intel Corp. Integrated Rate Matching Hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 004: ID 04f3:0103 Elan Microelectronics Corp. ActiveJet K-2024 Multimedia Keyboard
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 0bda:0138 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. RTS5138 Card Reader Controller
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 8087:0024 Intel Corp. Integrated Rate Matching Hub
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 003 Device 005: ID 0930:0219 Toshiba Corp. Bluetooth USB Host Controller
Bus 003 Device 002: ID 89e5:1001 USB OPTICAL MOUSE
Bus 003 Device 013: ID 0ea0:2168 Ours Technology, Inc. Transcend JetFlash 2.0 / Astone USB Drive / Intellegent Stick 2.0
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
kub@kub-SATELLITE-L870-18V:~$
and for the 1 GB dive :-
kub@kub-SATELLITE-L870-18V:~$ lsusb
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 8087:0024 Intel Corp. Integrated Rate Matching Hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 004: ID 04f3:0103 Elan Microelectronics Corp. ActiveJet K-2024 Multimedia Keyboard
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 0bda:0138 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. RTS5138 Card Reader Controller
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 8087:0024 Intel Corp. Integrated Rate Matching Hub
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 003 Device 005: ID 0930:0219 Toshiba Corp. Bluetooth USB Host Controller
Bus 003 Device 002: ID 89e5:1001 USB OPTICAL MOUSE
Bus 003 Device 014: ID 0a16:2004 Trek Technology (S) PTE, Ltd Store 'n' Go
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
kub@kub-SATELLITE-L870-18V:~$
ASIDE: I have been reporting the 1 GB drive as being 2 GB. Please accept my apologies for this confusion on my part.
@sudodus:
I tried manually mounting each flash drive in turn to the same USB port on my PC and received the following system responses.
For the 128 MB drive :-
kub@kub-SATELLITE-L870-18V:~$ sudo mount /dev/sdc /media/usb
mount: /media/usb0: no medium found on /dev/sdc.
kub@kub-SATELLITE-L870-18V:~$
For the 1GB drive :-
kub@kub-SATELLITE-L870-18V:~$ sudo mount /dev/sdc /media/usb
mount: /media/usb0: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/sdc, missing codepage or helper program, or other error.
kub@kub-SATELLITE-L870-18V:~$
I think I also read that a command or recovery utility would delete/reformat the first 1 MB if recovery were attempted. That is a lot of (small) files to lose.
From the foregoing it would seem that both drives just might be recoverable but at a cost of lost files.
I am now going to continue my investigations using the info at the link supplied by sudodus. I will post again after this, unless what I have just supplied tells you that the drives are in fact unrecoverable.
Best regards,
Stuart
