PC won't recognize a thumb-drive

[BoomerD]

I received a 1 gb thumb-drive as a "free gift" from Chief Value the other day, but my PC doesn't recognize it...sort of. It shows up in the device manager, but not in "My Computer" so I can actually access it.
I presume it's generic, even though it does say Intel on it. The system gives me the option of "Safely remove hardware", so I know the system sees it.

I have another thumb-drive that works fine in both USB slots.

Any ideas? Just toss it out since it was free but doesn't work? (it would be handy to have next semester, but they're hella cheap, so it's no big deal)

Thanks.

 

[Zepper]

Perhaps the drive isn't formatted. Some cheap, generic Flash drives come unformatted. Check in the Control Panel under Admin tools > Storage management.

.bh.

 

[BoomerD]

Hmm, doesnt show up in storage.
This is odd...or at least to me.

 

[BoomerD]

Oddly enough, my wife's computer recognizes this thing, but my computer won't. I double-checked my other flash-drive, and it works fine. I formatted it with my wife's PC just to be sure it was formatted, but still no go.

 

[Old Hippie]

I've run into the same thing. Unfortunately, I never did figure out the problem. :frown:

 

[0roo0roo]

using a longer or thin cable?
i've had lousy cables that couldn't give enough power to a drive or something, like those ziplink ones. plug directly into port or use a decent cable and see if it works. and yes it was a flashdrive, not a harddrive which i found a bit pathetic

 

[BoomerD]

Plugged directly into the USB port on the case. No cables involved except the one that goes from the motherboard to the port.

 

[jtvang125]

Check the drive letter mapping. Windows may have assigned it the same letter as another drive and you won't see it in explorer.

 

[BoomerD]

I checked the disk management area of Administrative Tools, and it doesn't appear there under any letter assignment, even though device manager seems to see it:

Text

 

[Old Hippie]

Originally posted by: BoomerD
I checked the disk management area of Administrative Tools, and it doesn't appear there under any letter assignment, even though device manager seems to see it:

Text

Look at how it's listed. CD-ROM 0 with a CDFS file system? What's up with that?

 

[BoomerD]

Originally posted by: Old Hippie

Originally posted by: BoomerD
I checked the disk management area of Administrative Tools, and it doesn't appear there under any letter assignment, even though device manager seems to see it:

Text

Look at how it's listed. CD-ROM 0 with a CDFS file system? What's up with that?

CD-ROM 0 is my Samsung DVD burner. See the BF2 listed?
CD-ROM1 is my Toshiba DVD player.
The thumb-drive isn't even listed.

 

[Old Hippie]

CD-ROM 0 is my Samsung DVD burner. See the BF2 listed?

:laugh: You had a CD in there. Maybe I'd better put the pipe down. :laugh:

 

[BoomerD]

Or just pass it over to me....
:music: Don't bogart that joint my friend...:music:

Yeah, I AM old enough to remember when that came out...

 

[dclive]

Insert the USB stick into the computer.
Wait a few minutes.
Read (at the very bottom) setupapi.log in c:\windows.

 

[BoomerD]

Nothing ever showed up there listed for today's date. Here's another oddity...when I plug in the flash-drive, everything comes to an almost total stop, but for a change, the drive showed up in My Computer (as C: ) but when I clicked on it, I got this:

http://www.whodah.com/albums/BoomerD/asw.sized.jpg

 

[dclive]

Why would it show up as C: ? Isn't Windows installed on the C: hard drive?

Remove the drive. Wait 2 minutes. Insert the drive. Wait 2 minutes. Run MPS Reports. Send me the resulting .cab file.

 

[BoomerD]

Also, playing around in Device Manager, I find these:

http://www.whodah.com/albums/BoomerD/asz.sized.jpg

SOME part of my system is recognizing the thing:
http://www.whodah.com/albums/BoomerD/asy.sized.jpg

http://www.whodah.com/albums/BoomerD/asx.sized.jpg

 

[BoomerD]

Picked up a new thumb-drive at the campus bookstore today. It works fine in my PC, so the problem must be with the other drive. Still odd that it seems to work in my wife's old Dell and not in my box...Gonna take it to school and see if it works in any of the PC's there...
I was beginning to wonder if I got some of the wiring for the USB ports crossed when I had them unplugged the other week when I installed my new PSU. (did some cable management and re-routed lots of wiring...never did reconnect the firewire cable)

 

[BoomerD]

Here's another twist to this thread...
I notified Chief Value that the drive wouldn't work in my PC. To my surprise, they sent a replacement! I plugged it in, and...you guessed it...this one doesn't work in my computer either...
I took both of them to school with me today and tried them in one of the PC's in my architecture class...BOTH work fine in there...

WTF is going on? I have 2 other thumb drives that work fine in my computer, it's just these 2 that don't. (but the computer still recognizes them...sort of, but doesn't assign them drive letters or show them in "my computer" in any fashion.

Originally posted by: dclive
Why would it show up as C: ? Isn't Windows installed on the C: hard drive?

Remove the drive. Wait 2 minutes. Insert the drive. Wait 2 minutes. Run MPS Reports. Send me the resulting .cab file.

When I installed my SATA drive, windows defaulted it to F:


Working on the MPS report.

 

[potato28]

Bump, having similar problems.

 

[dclive]

I suggest doing my prior suggestion, after checking it isn't shown in Disk Management.

 

[BoomerD]

Bringing this back from the dead...I installed Vista Ultimate and to my surprise, both of the flash drives work on my computer now. NO idea why this changed, but :thumbsup: for a pleasant surprise.