SSD problems

I have a 128MB USB flash drive that I've kept in the change pocket of
my wallet for several years. I tried to access the contents of it,
today, and couldn't. I inserted the drive into my computer, clicked
on it, and got the following:

You need to format the disk in drive D: before you can use it.

Do you want to format it?

No problem, I thought. What I wanted the drive for was to put stuff
on it - not to retrieve data from it. So I hit the "Format isk"
button and... in the capacity dropdown menu on the resultant screen,
the only capacity that's available to me is 8.00 MB. The drive,
however, is definitely a 128 MB drive.

Regardless, I hit the "Start" button and after a few seconds I get the
following:

Windows was unable to complete the format.

This has left me rather distrustful of SSD. It's marketed as being
more resistant to damage than traditional hard drives yet it doesn't
really seem all that resistant to damage to me.

Was keeping the flash drive in the change pocket of my wallet a bad
idea? Maybe I'm getting these problems because I didn't do "Safely
Remove Hardware" once? If that's the case, maybe there's something I
can do to fix the problem? Maybe some program can be ran or
something?

Also, here's an image of a 64MB SD card that I'm unable to read:

http://www.geocities.com/terra1024/sd-card.jpg

I stick it in my 9-in-1 card reader and it's not recognized at all. I
stick another SD card into the card reader and I can read that one
just fine - just not this one.

Per the image, the copper leads are somewhat scratched, however,
they're also scratched on the other SD card. Maybe these are just
scratched a lot more? If so, how, in theory, one would go about
fixing it? I'm not all that concerned about the data on it but am
kinda curious, all the same.

Would applying a very thin layer of solder fix it? Maybe taping on a
thing film of a conductive metal (like copper or gold; I don't believe
aluminum is all that conductive) on it? copper foil or something?

On Sun, 5 Apr 2009 11:07:09 -0700 (PDT), yawnmoth
put finger to keyboard and composed:

here's an image of a 64MB SD card that I'm unable to read:

http://www.geocities.com/terra1024/sd-card.jpg

I stick it in my 9-in-1 card reader and it's not recognized at all. I
stick another SD card into the card reader and I can read that one
just fine - just not this one.

Per the image, the copper leads are somewhat scratched ...

Gently clean the gold fingers with a soft pencil eraser.

- Franc Zabkar
--
Please remove one 'i' from my address when replying by email.