Instructions for restoring the functionality of the flash drive. Determining the VID and PID of a flash drive
If you have been using a flash drive for many years, and no problems have arisen, but one day, when you connect it to a computer, it is identified as an unknown USB device, or is not identified at all, then you need to deal with the problem. Remember if you dropped it. If there was such a case, then the damage is physical, and these tips will not help.
If you haven't used safe removal when you disconnect the flash drive from the computer or it is no longer detected after formatting, then you can use the VID and PID to select some program that will help restore the functionality of the USB drive.
About what VID and PID are, and how to find out these parameters, we'll talk In this article. VID identifies the manufacturer, and PID identifies the device itself. Flash drives that produce large firms, specific values for each parameter are taken and assigned to all USB drives. For example, all Transcend flash drives have a VID of 8564 and a PID of 1000. Some manufacturers leave the VID and PID for a USB drive the same as those of the controller installed in it. Well, if you have a cheap Chinese flash drive, then VID and PID are just random, meaningless numbers.
If you format the drive with some inappropriate program, it may stop working altogether. Let's look at the methods using which we can find out the values we need. Then you just need to use the online service that contains the database suitable programs to restore a flash drive of a specific model.
Using Device Manager
The easiest way to find out the VID and PID is to look at these values by opening Device Manager.
In Windows 7, click the Start button and select from the list on the right. If you don’t have such an item, type “control panel” in the search bar and click on the appropriate result.
If you have Windows 10 installed, then click right click mouse on the “Start” button and select from the menu.
Then double-click on the item « USB controllers» . In the drop-down list you need to select "USB Mass Storage Device" and right-click on it. If your flash drive is not detected, then you will have an item like « Undefined device USB". Next from context menu select .
In the next window, go to the "Details" tab. In the top “Property” field, select from the drop-down list "Equipment ID". A little lower in the “Value” field the VID and PID will be indicated.
Using utilities
There are a lot of programs that will help you find out the VID and PID values of a USB drive. In addition, they will show other information about your device. Let's look at a few popular programs.
Flash Drive Information Extractor
Program Flash Drive Information Extractor shows all necessary information about the USB drive. Insert the flash drive into a free USB port and wait a minute. Then run the program and click on the button in the window that opens “Show information about the flash drive”.
The program will produce results very quickly. Find the VID and PID fields and see what values your flash drive has.
ChipEasy
ChipEasy will show a little less information than the previous program, but we can see the parameters we need. Launch the program and double-click on the desired USB drive in the upper field.
In the area with detailed information the "Device ID" field will show the VID and PID.
ChipGenius
With the ChipGenius program everything is also very simple. Launch it in upper area click on the connected flash drive to view detailed information about her. Then a little lower in the field " USB Device ID" look at the parameters of interest.
USBDeview
The USBDeview program must be selected depending on the bit depth of your operating system. If you have 32 installed bit Windows, then select the appropriate USBDeview file and run it, if it is 64-bit, then run the file where the name contains the number 64.
The main window of the program displays all devices that have ever been connected to your computer or laptop. Find in this list It may be difficult to create your own flash drive, so click on the “Settings” button and uncheck the box.
Now the main window displays only those devices that are connected to the computer on this moment. Find your device in the list and click on it.
The properties window will open. In it we will be interested in two parameters: “Product Code” is PID, and “Supplier Code” is VID. The same parameters can be viewed in the lower right field “Device Instance Code”.
How to look on the USB drive itself
If you find out the VID and PID data using various programs If it doesn’t work, then you can disassemble the flash drive. Do this carefully so as not to damage anything, otherwise the device will definitely become inoperative.
On the board of each flash drive there is a black rectangle or square - this is the controller. You can see the markings on it. For example, a Kingston flash drive has a PS2251-37KS controller installed. Knowing the controller markings, you can also choose the correct recovery method for the flash drive.
After you have found out the VID and PID values, you can use the iFlash online service. Here is a database that is created by the users themselves, which program, which flash drive is best to revive.
On home page service, enter your data in the “VID” and “PID” fields and click the “Search” button.
A table will appear on the page. The first column will say who the manufacturer is, the second column will contain information about the model. The “Chip Model” column provides information about the controller.
Find your flash drive using these parameters, and if you’re lucky, the last column will contain the name of the utility that can be used to restore your flash drive.
Bring your flash drive back to life using the right program. You can find it by finding out the VID and PID of the USB drive. And you already know how to do this.
USB flash drives are reliable devices, but there is always a risk of failure. The reason for this may be incorrect work, firmware failure, failed formatting, and so on. In any case, if this is not physical damage, you can try to restore it using software.
The problem is that not every tool is suitable for recovering a specific flash drive, and using the wrong utility can permanently damage it. But knowing the VID and PID of the drive, you can determine the type of its controller and select the appropriate program.
VID is used to identify the manufacturer, PID is the identifier of the device itself. Accordingly, each controller on removable storage marked with these values. True, some unscrupulous manufacturers may neglect paid registration ID numbers and simply assign them at random. But this mainly concerns cheap Chinese products.
First, make sure that the flash drive is at least somehow detected by the computer: audible characteristic sound when connected, it is visible in the list of connected devices, displayed in "Task Manager"(possibly like unknown device) And so on. Otherwise, there is little chance not only of determining the VID and PID, but also of recovering the media.
ID numbers can be quickly determined using specialized programs. Alternatively, you can use "Device Manager" or simply disassemble the flash drive and find information on its “internals”.
Please note that MMC, SD, MicroSD cards do not have VID and PID values. By applying one of the methods to them, you will receive only card reader identifiers.
Method 1: ChipGenius
Reads the main one perfectly technical information not only from flash drives, but also from many other devices. Interestingly, ChipGenius has its own VID and PID database to provide guessable device information when the controller fails to interrogate for some reason.
To use this program, do the following:
- Launch it. At the top of the window, select the USB flash drive.
- Below opposite the value "USB Device ID" You will see VID and PID.
Please note: older versions of the program may not work correctly - download the latest ones (you can find the exact one using the link above). Also in some cases she refuses to work with USB ports 3.0.
Method 2: Flash Drive Information Extractor
This program provides more detailed information about the drive, of course, including VID and PID.
After you have downloaded the program, do the following:
Method 3: USBDeview
The main function of this program is to display a list of all devices ever connected to this PC. Additionally, you can get detailed information about them.
Instructions for use are as follows:
Method 4: ChipEasy
An intuitive utility that allows you to get comprehensive information about the flash drive.
After downloading, do this:
- Launch the program.
- In the top field, select the desired drive.
- Below you will see all its technical data. VID and PID are on the second line. You can select and copy them ( "CTRL+C").
Method 5: CheckUDisk
A simple utility that displays basic information about the drive.
Further instructions:
- Launch the program.
- Select the flash drive from the top.
- Check out the data below. VID and PID are located on the second line.
Method 6: Study the board
When none of the methods helps, then you can take radical measures and open the flash drive case, if possible. You may not find VID and PID there, but the markings on the controller have the same value. The controller is the most important part of the USB drive; it is black in color and square in shape. 
What to do with these values?
Now you can start using the information received and find an effective utility for working with your flash drive. To do this, you should use it, where users themselves create a database of such programs.
If you have been using a flash drive for many years, and no problems have arisen, but one day, when you connect it to a computer, it is identified as an unknown USB device, or is not identified at all, then you need to deal with the problem. Remember if you dropped it. If there was such a case, then the damage is physical, and these tips will not help.
If you did not use safe removal when disconnecting the flash drive from the computer or it was no longer detected after formatting, then you can use the VID and PID to select some program that will help restore the functionality of the USB drive.
What VID and PID are and how to find out these parameters will be discussed in this article. VID identifies the manufacturer, and PID identifies the device itself. From flash drives produced by large companies, certain values for each parameter are taken and assigned to all USB drives. For example, all Transcend flash drives have a VID of 8564 and a PID of 1000. Some manufacturers leave the VID and PID for a USB drive the same as those of the controller installed in it. Well, if you have a cheap Chinese flash drive, then VID and PID are just random, meaningless numbers.
If you format the drive with some inappropriate program, it may stop working altogether. Let's look at the methods using which we can find out the values we need. Then you just need to use an online service that contains a database of suitable programs for restoring a flash drive of a certain model.
Using Device Manager
The easiest way to find out the VID and PID is to look at these values by opening Device Manager.
In Windows 7, click the Start button and select from the list on the right. If you don’t have such an item, type “control panel” in the search bar and click on the appropriate result.
If you have Windows 10 installed, then right-click on the “Start” button and select from the menu.
Then double-click on the item "USB Controllers". In the drop-down list you need to select "USB Mass Storage Device" and right-click on it. If your flash drive is not detected, then you will have an item like "Unidentified USB device". Next, select from the context menu.
In the next window, go to the "Details" tab. In the top “Property” field, select from the drop-down list "Equipment ID". A little lower in the “Value” field the VID and PID will be indicated.
Using utilities
There are a lot of programs that will help you find out the VID and PID values of a USB drive. In addition, they will show other information about your device. Let's look at a few popular programs.
Flash Drive Information Extractor
The Flash Drive Information Extractor program shows all the necessary information about the USB drive. Insert the flash drive into an available USB port and wait a minute. Then run the program and click on the button in the window that opens “Show information about the flash drive”.
The program will produce results very quickly. Find the VID and PID fields and see what values your flash drive has.
ChipEasy
ChipEasy will show a little less information than the previous program, but you can see the parameters we need. Launch the program and double-click on the desired USB drive in the upper field.
In the detailed information area, the VID and PID will be shown in the “Device ID” field.
ChipGenius
With the ChipGenius program everything is also very simple. Launch it and in the upper area click on the connected flash drive to see detailed information about it. Then, a little lower in the “USB Device ID” field, look at the parameters of interest.
USBDeview
The USBDeview program must be selected depending on the bit depth of your operating system. If you have 32-bit Windows installed, then select the appropriate USBDeview file and run it; if you have 64-bit, then run the file with the number 64 in the name.
The main window of the program displays all devices that have ever been connected to your computer or laptop. It may be difficult to find your flash drive in this list, so click on the “Settings” button and uncheck the box.
Now the main window displays only those devices that are currently connected to the computer. Find your device in the list and click on it.
The properties window will open. In it we will be interested in two parameters: “Product Code” is PID, and “Supplier Code” is VID. The same parameters can be viewed in the lower right field “Device Instance Code”.
How to look on the USB drive itself
If you cannot find out the VID and PID data using various programs, then you can disassemble the flash drive. Do this carefully so as not to damage anything, otherwise the device will definitely become inoperative.
On the board of each flash drive there is a black rectangle or square - this is the controller. You can see the markings on it. For example, a Kingston flash drive has a PS2251-37KS controller installed. Knowing the controller markings, you can also choose the correct recovery method for the flash drive.
After you have found out the VID and PID values, you can use the iFlash online service. Here is a database that is created by the users themselves, which program, which flash drive is best to revive.
On the main page of the service, enter your data in the “VID” and “PID” fields and click the “Search” button.
A table will appear on the page. The first column will say who the manufacturer is, the second column will contain information about the model. The “Chip Model” column provides information about the controller.
Find your flash drive using these parameters, and if you’re lucky, the last column will contain the name of the utility that can be used to restore your flash drive.
Bring your flash drive back to life using the right program. You can find it by finding out the VID and PID of the USB drive. And you already know how to do this.
You may need to find out the VID and PID of a flash drive for several reasons. For example, if you encounter a problem where it is no longer detected or says that the disk is write-protected, then you can try to restore it using a special utility that performs low level formatting, but for this you need to find out the VID and PID of the flash drive in order to choose the right utility. For example, if you have a device for which you cannot find a driver, but knowing the VID and PID you can find required driver. Just enter this data into a search engine.
In this article we will look at 2 ways in which you can find out the VID and PID of a flash drive, namely:
- Through the CheckUDisk program
- Via Device Manager
Program for determining the vid pid of a flash drive
To quickly determine the VID and PID of a flash drive, you will need a program CheckUDisk. Download it from the link below, it is free.
The program is in zip archive, unpack it and launch it. After starting the program, you will see the main window of the CheckUDisk program. At the bottom of the window you need to check the box next to All USB Device.
If the flash drive is installed, then your flash drive should appear in the Connected UDisk device window, which can be found by its name. 
In order to find out the type and PID of the flash drive, you need to left-click on it once and information will appear in the “Selected Udisk device information” field, which is located below.
As you can see in the picture above, we have selected a flash drive silicon-power. Below we see its parameters, VID 13, PID 5200.
This is how easy it is to find out VID and PID usb flash drives using the program.
Find out VID and PID through device manager
If you were unable to find out the VID and PID using the CheckUDisk program, you can do this through the device manager.
To do this, go to the device manager. You can do this as follows
- Right-click on the “My Computer” icon on the desktop or in the “Start” menu
- In the context menu that appears, click “Device Manager”
A window will appear that displays all the system devices, which are divided into partitions. In our case, we are interested in the VID and PID of the flash drive, so we open the tab called “ Disk devices", this is where the installed flash drive in the computer will be displayed.
Right-click on to the desired device and in the context menu that appears, click “Properties”.
Click Properties The following window will appear in which we need to switch to the “Details” tab. Select “Parent” from the drop-down list. And in the field below you can see the VID and PID of this device.
If you need to install a driver for a USB drive or perform software repair, you can't do without getting two device identifiers:
- VID- This Vendor Identifier(manufacturer ID);
- PID- This Product Identifier(product identifier, that is specific model devices).
In field " Meaning", you will be shown VID And PIDUSB devices, but it is important to consider that some manufacturers, saving on registering their own VID and PID, can specify them arbitrarily!
Let's consider getting these values programmatically using Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) and class " Win32_USBHub».
If you use the program " WmiExplorer" and open the class " Win32_USBHub", can be seen in the column " PNPDeviceID» a string of the form USB\VID_152D&PID_2509\00A123457D9C, which has the format USB\VID_XXXX&PID_XXXX\Serial_number. It is from this line that we will extract data. But this class returns a list of all USB devices connected to the computer, so it is necessary to filter them.
- Obtaining the VID of a usb drive;
- Obtaining the PID of a usb drive;
- Receiving serial usb numbers drive.
- ListBox – displaying information on USB devices;
- Button – starts the process of obtaining information.
string PNPDeviceID = string.Empty; //Preliminarily clear the list listBox1.Items.Clear(); //Receiving USB list drives foreach (System.Management.ManagementObject drive in new System.Management.ManagementObjectSearcher("select * from Win32_USBHub where Caption="USB Mass Storage Device"").Get()) ( PNPDeviceID = drive["PNPDeviceID"].ToString( ).Trim(); //Get Ven device listBox1.Items.Add("VID= " + parseVidFromDeviceID(drive["PNPDeviceID"].ToString().Trim()).Trim()); listBox1.Items.Add("PID= " + parsePidFromDeviceID(drive["PNPDeviceID"].ToString().Trim()).Trim()); Serial number devices string splitDeviceId = drive["PNPDeviceID"].ToString().Trim().Split("\\"); listBox1.Items.Add("Serial number= " + splitDeviceId.Trim());//Split the list of devices empty line
private string parseVidFromDeviceID(string deviceId) ( string splitDeviceId = deviceId.Split("\\"); string Prod; //Split the string into several parts. //Each part is separated by the character & string splitProd = splitDeviceId.Split("&" ); Prod = splitProd.Replace("VID", ""); Prod = Prod.Replace("_", " "); return Prod; "\\"); string Prod; //Split the string into several parts. //Each part is separated by a character & string splitProd = splitDeviceId.Split("&"); ; Prod = Prod.Replace("_", " "); Launch your project by pressing the "" key on your keyboard. F5" Paste USB drive and click the button Get information" You will receive information about this drive. If several devices are connected, information about the devices will be separated by an empty line.