USB Stick is recognized by PC but cannot be opened

Question

My new USB Stick with important data can't be opened by my or my friend's Windows Computer anymore. I can tell that it is recognized by it since a "device" is "mounted" under E:/ and my computer makes a sound when I connect it but it won't show the USB's original name nor does it allow me to access the data.

When I click on it it asks me to insert a USB-Drive.

1. I have tried already to deactivate and reactivate the USB Stick
2. to deinstall and reinstall drivers for the USB-Stick
3. to rename the driver letter from E:/ to P:/ and back to E:/
4. and put it into the freezer for 20 minutes (my friend recommended this)

I hope anybody can help me out with this as the data is really important to me.

Here is the data that my system gives me for the Stick:

• Device Name = Port_#0003.Hub_#0001
• Description = Samsung Flash Drive FIT USB Device
• Device Type = Mass Storage
• Connected = Yes
• Safe To Unplug = Yes
• Disabled = No
• USB Hub = No
• Drive Letter = E:
• Serial Number = 0329516090014309
• Created Date = 25.12.2016 18:22:06
• Last Plug/Unplug Date = 25.12.2016 16:54:20
• VendorID = 090c
• ProductID = 1000
• Firmware Revision = 11.00
• USB SubClass = 06
• USB Protocol = 50
• USB Class = 08
• Service Name = USBSTOR
• Service Description = @usbstor.inf,%USBSTOR.SvcDesc%;USB Mass Storage Driver
• Driver Filename = USBSTOR.SYS
• Device Mfg = Compatible USB storage device
• USB Version = 2.10
• Driver Description = USB Mass Storage Device
• Driver Version = 10.0.14393.0
• Driver InfSection = USBSTOR_BULK.NT
• Driver InfPath = usbstor.inf
• Instance ID = USB\VID_090C&PID_1000\0329516090014309
• Capabilities = Removable, UniqueID, SurpriseRemovalOK

Edit 25.12.2016 - Opposed to another question posted here I have no access to the storage size information of my flash drive - hence it must be a different problem.

Answer 1

If even chkdsk cannot access the stick, it is possible that the stick is formatted in a file system that Windows does not recognize - possibly ext{2,4}. You can do one of these:

This tutorial (http://www.howtogeek.com/112888/3-ways-to-access-your-linux-partitions-from-windows/) cites three tools/drivers to access to extX from Windows directly:

• Ext2Fsd (http://www.ext2fsd.com/)
• Diskinternals (https://www.diskinternals.com/linux-reader/)
• Ext2Read (https://sourceforge.net/projects/ext2read/)

Apart from that, there are two ways that you can easily deploy Linux without interrupting your Windows installation:

• You can install Virtualbox and add a lightweight and easily installed Linux distribution (such as Lubuntu, or Puppy Linux) as a VM.
• You can install a lightweight and easily installed Linux distribution (such as Lubuntu, or maybe Puppy Linux) to a USB (provided that you have at least two USB ports, or a USB hub).

In USB installation, you can easily copy the contents of the disk to the Windows partition. In the case of Virtualbox VM, you have to define a shared folder, so that Linux and Windows can share files.