Flash drive not detected in Ubuntu 16.04

Question

I installed Ubuntu 16.04 from a flash drive a while ago, and it worked just fine for the installation itself. However, now it's displaying the below error every time I try to plug it in and use it:

Sorry, could not display all the contents of “KINGSTON”:
Error when getting information for file '/media/anupam/KINGSTON/2008': Input/output error

In the same vein, this drive no longer shows up on my desktop or in my file browser.

How can I fix this?

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lsblk -m without the flash drive inserted:

NAME   SIZE   OWNER GROUP  MODE 
sda    931.5G root  disk  brw-rw---- 
├─sda1 923.6G root  disk  brw-rw---- 
├─sda2 1K     root  disk  brw-rw---- 
└─sda5 7.9G   root  disk  brw-rw---- 
sr0    1024M  root  cdrom brw-rw----

lsblk with drive inserted into back of machine:

NAME   MAJ:MIN RM SIZE   RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT 
sda    8:0     0  931.5G 0 disk 
├─sda1 8:1     0  923.6G 0 part / 
├─sda2 8:2     0  1K     0 part 
└─sda5 8:5     0  7.9G   0 part [SWAP] 
sdb    8:16    0  29.2G  0 disk 
└─sdb1 8:17    0  29.2G  0 part /media/anupam/EF74-68FB 
sr0    11:0    1  1024M  0 rom

lsblk with drive inserted into front of machine is the same as above.

Answer 1

Your drive error is explained right here:

Error when getting information for file '/media/anupam/KINGSTON/2008': Input/output error

I/O errors mean one of two things (usually):

• Hardware Error (More likely)
  In almost all cases, an I/O error is a result of failed hardware. Check your USB port and drive for debris and the like, removing any if it exists. If the error happens, your flash drive is (probably) dead. Try saving what you can from it using dd to make an image, and work from that image.
• ntfs-3g Error (Less likely)
  Occasionally, NTFS drives (using ntfs-3g on Linux) will throw this error. Try running fsck on the drive itself (fsck /dev/sdX, replacing X with the drive's identifier), or by using CHKDSK on Windows itself. If the drive still has this error, it's going to be a hardware fault (see above).

Answer 2

The pendrive is seen according to one of your comments:

$ lsblk
NAME  MAJ:MIN RM SIZE   RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
sda     8:0   0  931.5G 0  disk 
 ├─sda1 8:1   0  923.6G 0  part / 
 ├─sda2 8:2   0  1K     0  part 
 └─sda5 8:5   0  7.9G   0  part [SWAP] 
sdb     8:16  0  29.2G  0  disk
 └─sdb1 8:17  0  29.2G  0  part /media/anupam/EF74-68FB
sr0    11:0   1  1024M  0  rom 

It looks OK here, it is even mounted (at /media/anupam/EF74-68FB).

I suspect that there is a hardware problem, for example with the power supply for the pendrive, or some electronic component that is failing.

Have you connected some other device to USB, that might need a lot of power or cause some other problem?

But it could also be a software problem. Boot the computer from a DVD disk or USB pendrive (made from an Ubuntu iso file), and check if the pendrives work. (If they work in the live system, but not in the installed system, we should blame the installed system, otherwise it is probably a hardware problem).