My portable SSD suddenly stopped being recognized… it contains most of my work files. What should I do?
Hey everyone, I’ve been using a Kingston portable SSD with a Ugreen adapter for a little over three years. It’s basically where I store most of my work files. Because of my job, I constantly switch between Mac and Windows, so this drive has been my main way of moving and storing files between the two systems.
Right now the drive is about 70% full.
About a month ago, I started noticing something weird. The drive wouldn’t show up immediately when I plugged it in. I often had to unplug and reconnect it several times before the computer would finally recognize it. When it wasn't recognized, the drive would just sit there like it was in standby, with no activity. Today things got worse. I tried plugging it into multiple computers (both Mac and Windows) and different USB ports, but now it doesn’t get recognized at all no matter how many times I reconnect it.
This drive contains a lot of my work files, and some of them would be really difficult to replace.
So now I’m wondering, does this sound like the SSD itself failing, or could it be the USB adapter/cable? Is there still a realistic chance to recover the data if the drive itself is dying?
Posted Mar 30, 2026, 6:07 AM UTC