Usb Thumb Drive Problems

[crockett]

Hi all,

I backed up some files from another computer to a USB thumb drive. Now, when I plug the drive

into my own Laptop running Win XP Pro SP2 (legal) the drive is recognized and I can see the drive

letter in "My Computer". However, when trying to access it, now I get the message that it is not

formatted yet.

Any ideas anybody?

[chingching]

format it.

[cdnvic]

Hi all,

I backed up some files from another computer to a USB thumb drive. Now, when I plug the drive

into my own Laptop running Win XP Pro SP2 (legal) the drive is recognized and I can see the drive

letter in "My Computer". However, when trying to access it, now I get the message that it is not

formatted yet.

Any ideas anybody?

You need to format it before putting the data on it. This goes for some camera memory cards too. Just right click on it and choose "format" and next time you put data on it you will be able to read it.

[The Dan Sai Kid]

Er, lads - before you run off and tell him to format it's important that it's formatted properly - by the proper device - I have a funny feeling if you format it with XP then it won't work anymore. Eg. if you have a camera card then you should format it in the camera -not access it via windows and format it. It is possible you have picked up a virus - try running virus scan and see what happens - if no joy then take it back to where you got it and get them to take a look at it.

It's possible that you problem could get sorted out by formatting - you just need to check a couple of things first!

[crockett]

Thanks for your quick replies.

I am using the drive already for a year or so without any problems.

This is the first time I see that message. Anyway, when I try to format

it I get another message "Windows was unable to complete the format".

[cdnvic]

I always format my camera cards on a windows machine. Same with thumbdrives. Works fine.

[crockett]

The file system of the USB drive has somehow changed from FAT to RAW When trying to format

it to FAT I get the said message that the drive cannot be formatted.

[Rice_King]

Try this:

If you are using XP, go to Start / Programs / Administrative tools / computer management / disk management. Your flash drive should show up there and if it does you can right click on it (in the lower half of the screen) and partition it or reformat it in order for windows to recognize it.

If that fails, it gets more tricky... This next method may or may not work depending if your motherboard's BIOS will recognize the thumb drive. You could test it by doing step #3 first. If you can see your thumb drive listed, then back out and start from step #1.

1. Get a win98se bootdisk bootdisk.com) if you don't have a floppy, there is a link there that shows you how to make a bootable cd.

2. Disconnect all harddrives. (Unplugging the power connections should work fine.) This is a precationary measure so that you don't accidentally format the wrong drive.

3. Boot up the computer with the bootdisk.

4. Use fdisk to delete and recreate the partition on the flash drive. (Since the harddrives have been disconnected, it should be "fdisk c:")

5. Restart with bootdisk and use "fdisk /mbr" (not sure if you need this step, but I did it because I was getting an error on track 0 which is the MBR and there is no harm)

6. Then use "format X:" (assuming x is your drive)

Good luck!

[crockett]

Thanks rice_king for the great reply, one reason why I love this forum.

The flash drive is recognized under Computer Management but it still cannot be formatted. So

I booted with a Win98 Boot Disk and the Bios shows the USB drive. I will follow your instructions

further and keep you posted.

Thanks,

crockett

[elkangorito]

One reason why I love Unix & DOS...it's always useful. I always have a copy of Partition Magic handy for such occasions.

[crockett]

rice_king, I followed your instructions but there seems no way to re-format the drive to FAT.

I've also googled for this subject and most replies are negative.

Anyway, thanks to all of you for your help but I better cut the losses and buy a new one.

Saves me a lot of headaches too ...

crockett

[Rice_King]

Sorry it didn't work out. The drive must really be FUBAR'd if the second method failed. I will have to look for an application that finds and repairs flash drives like SpinRite does for hard drives.