It is extremely unlikely. A properly working USB drive will always report a valid VID assigned by USB‑IF. If you see FFFF for the VID, the drive’s controller is in a failed state, and the drive may stop working entirely at any moment. Back up your data immediately.
October 26, 2023 Subject: Analysis of USB Device with Vendor ID FFFF and Product ID 1201
I asked whether I could hand the device over to authorities. The group laughed—quiet, exhausted laughter. The ledger had no legal standing, and law would petrify what it touched. Memory is not evidence in most courts. It’s rumor, and rumor is anonymous. usb device id vid ffff pid 1201
The answer depends on the root cause.
Many low-cost or counterfeit drives use these generic IDs. They may claim a high capacity (like 128GB) but actually contain much smaller NAND chips. It is extremely unlikely
Every USB device has a small chip (microcontroller) that stores firmware—the brain of the device. If the firmware becomes corrupt due to a sudden power loss, improper ejection, or a voltage spike, the device reverts to a "bootloader" or "panic" mode. In this mode, it reports VID_FFFF because it cannot load its real configuration.
This will erase all data permanently.
The controller has lost its production firmware (often after a power loss) and has reverted to a "bootloader" or "test" mode.