In Microsoft operating systems , an I / O error on a device means that a particular system has difficulty reading or saving information on a storage device. If these are flash drives, then this message appears when using them using a card reader or when trying to access a file. Often an I / O error indicates that the device needs to be replaced. However, you can try to reanimate your data and even bring the drive back to life.
Let's first understand why this happens. A flash drive or disk may be damaged as a result of mechanical stress (for example, a fall, shock, etc.). If you inserted or removed the card incorrectly, carefully inspect it for obvious defects in the contact group or case. It often happens that if a shell break is restored, the card starts working again. Then you can return the information. After that, it is worth getting rid of the defective drive. This will prevent you from losing data again.
A disk I / O error may also occur due to a damaged file system. This happens when the drive is removed without the use of a safety function, and also when power is lost during data transfer. As an example, imagine a situation where you are photographing someone, and at that moment the battery is completely discharged. In this case, there is a high probability of failure of the memory card. To restore the file system, try entering “chkdsk (device letter): / r” at the command prompt. It is very important to write all the data that the computer is able to read on a working drive.
Another I / O error may appear due to improper operation of the card reader. It is better to use universal devices that are able to support several formats. To exclude the cause of failure of this particular equipment, check to see if there are any flash drive fragments inside the broken parts. Still worth paying attention to the integrity of the cable.
The next reason that an I / O error often appears may be in the incompatibility of information transfer. In the late nineties, most computers supported access technology called DMA. If your machine will try to use it for older versions of flash drives that support only the PIO mode, an input-input error will certainly appear. This will also happen when the Compact Flash drive standard is used. It is also not allowed to connect the card reader to the ATA controller in your computer.
To remove all these errors, go to the “device manager”, where you need to find the section with the controller in which the card with the error is located. Open the advanced settings tab, find the DMA mode enable point and remove the marker from it. This will enable the controller to operate in PIO mode. Here, in principle, and all the cases when your computer or laptop can give such an error. Follow all the recommendations and everything will be in order.