USB device not able to open all of a sudden

[Nina Laderoute]

I'm having quite the issue.... just yesterday my usb worked fine but had a pop up stating 'scan and fix/continue without scanning' on a school computer. I took the usb home to work on a document and now the usb can not open, it does not light up and i can not eject it from the system. the devices and printers window shows the device but only allows me to troubleshoot and look at the properties. I really need the files on this flash drive I have entire reports and projects on it for college. help!!!
extra info: the usb ports work i tested another flash drive to make sure, i completed 4 troubleshooting attempts and only found that 'hardware changes may not have been detected'. device manager claims the usb is working properly.

[Banfa]

It may have lost its drive letter assignment, if that is the case then with the USB drive inserted

In Explorer right click and select "Manage" the Computer Manager window should be displayed.
Select "Disk Management" in the tree on the left.
It should display a list of your hard drives including the USB stick along with a status "Healthy" or "Healthy (Active)" hopefully.
Right click in the list on the USB stick and select "Change Drive Letter and Paths" and from the box select "Change ..." select a new good drive letter and press OK.

[Nina Laderoute]

Hi Banfa, thank you for your help. My flash drive is with an engineer friend of mine and he is having no luck with it. I now believe there is a mechanical problem, or maybe water damage occured.

Thanks for the reply and I will mention your suggestion to him.