USB Key doesn't work on my computer only

[lord_emperor]

Some time ago I got a 16GB Kingston USB key, this kind specifically:

http://www.kingston.com/support/usbflashdrives/specs/dt100.pdf

This thing worked great until one day I thought it would be neat to have a mobile Ubuntu installation on it, this necessitated formatting it to FAT32. I did this using a Windows XP computer.

Since that day it refuses to play nice with my desktop and my desktop only.

Since then I cannot write to the USB key with my desktop, a good 95% of the time the file copy dialogue will open but just says "Calculating..." I give it more that a reasonable time to copy the files before giving up and canceling the copy.

At this point the drive will begin to appear completely blank in windows explorer, not even stating its capacity until unplugged and plugged back in. Investigating the files I tried to copy will reveal that sometimes they did copy after all, but more often are corrupt and/or only some files were copied.

Each time it is plugged in Windows insists that it needs to scan & fix the drive, if I let it do so it "succeeds" but then shows the drive blank as above.

Files can be read from the drive quite reliably, so I was able to backup what I had stored on there, gave up on the mobile Ubuntu and formatted it back to NTFS, but the symptoms persist.

I have another Kingston 4GB key that works no problem in my system, it still has its original file system and in fact has an installer for Windows 7 used to setup my system. I can write files to this drive all day long.

A bullet list probably illustrates this best:

Places it doesn't work:

• My desktop; Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit

Places it does work:

• My other two computers at home, both with Windows XP.
• My work computer; Kubuntu 9.10 32-bit
• My Windows XP VirtualBox install on the same hardware as above.
• Other windows XP computers at work.
• Freshly ordered Dell Vostro 430 with Windows 7 64-bit.

The other Windows 7 system also wanted to scan & fix, however the drive worked fine after. I always use "safely remove" or sync + umount on my keys before I unplug them, where possible.

Google has not been helpful with this problem.

 

[Dahak]

are you plugging this in to the front usb ports of the case? if so try the motherboard mounted ones on the back. I have seen some cases whos front usb will not work with some devices

 

[lord_emperor]

I've tried both, good thought though.

 

[razel]

All the Win7 systems seem touchy about it. It sounds like Win7 doesn't like something about the mbr or partition table. It also sounds like on your Win7 system, it remembers something about that drive and won't forget it. For the hell of it, I would do chkdsk /x on that drive on your system. In diskpart there is a command something like 'automount clear' to clear all disk mount information. This will reset all drive letters for previously inserted USB drives. If you want to pin-point exactly your USB drive. Find the USB drive name in Device Manager and remove all entries of that name in the registry.

The other issue is that USB drive might be ready to go. Recently my daily workhorse USB drive began to want 'scan and fix' more and more often, then one day, it appeared as unformatted. I lost the very beginning sector that contained the partition tables, but luckily the actual partition was still readable via a data recovery program. That data recovery program tried to rebuild the partition, but it couldn't write to that most important sector. Oh well, good thing the partition was intact and the program was awesome. I still was able to copy my files off it.

 

[FishAk]

I take it other USB devices work fine in the same sockets your problem drive has trouble.

I have a thumb-drive that I did a similar format to, and after that it wouldn't work on my main W7x64 system. it flat out wouldn't show up at all. It worked just fine in several other machines- including W7x64, and x32. It also worked on my main machine when I booted to XP. Also, other drives, and thumb-drives worked fine in my machine.

I ended up reformatting the drive with HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool, and it has worked fine since.

 

[lord_emperor]

Thanks both of you, those seem like promising options. Will update after I try them at home.

 

[lord_emperor]

Long after update.

None of the above suggestions provided a fix.

Over the holidays I got a new hard drive, so reinstalled Windows 7.

This USB key, specifically, still does not work on my computer only.

Currently copying an ubuntu ISO to it using a computer at work with Windows 7.

Truly dumbfounded at this point.

 

[BathroomFeeling]

With the new installation, did you also update your OS with the latest patches?

 

[BoomerD]

Do other USB devices work in your USB ports?

I went through something similar a few years ago with some thumb drives. They'd work in everyone else's computer but mine...
I upgraded my OS from XP to Vista and the problem went away, so I don't know what the cause actually was. (but now you know...you're not the only one that has such things happen)

Double check that you have the current USB drivers for your motherboard. It's possible that the standard Windows drivers aren't playing nice.

 

[lord_emperor]

With the new installation, did you also update your OS with the latest patches?

Yes, all of them.

Do other USB devices work in your USB ports?

I went through something similar a few years ago with some thumb drives. They'd work in everyone else's computer but mine...
I upgraded my OS from XP to Vista and the problem went away, so I don't know what the cause actually was. (but now you know...you're not the only one that has such things happen)

Double check that you have the current USB drivers for your motherboard. It's possible that the standard Windows drivers aren't playing nice.

Every other device works in any port. I have a USB mouse, keyboard and bluetooth dongle as well as other USB drives; in fact I installed windows 7 from a different USB stick, a 4GB kingston which I use for that purpose only.