USB Removable Disk Drive

**Goblin** · March 5th, 2006, 06:01 AM

Ive had a non-functioning USB drive for along time now, I remember it did work ages ago but stopped working when I removed the Drive without making sure to safely remove the hardware first. It shows up in "My computer", and in the "Safely Remove Hardware" thing. I can't reformat it, and I've tried using different USB ports. Ive also put it through norton Disk Doctor, but that seemed to screw it up even more

Ive read through most of the posts on the USB section, but nothing really resembles my problem. When i try to open the Disk Drive in "My computer" it says "Please insert Disk into Drive F" (And when i try the other USB port it says Drive I). When i try to reformat it it says "There is no disk in drive F. Insert a disk and try again". Got any advice?

Erm it also a Plug and Play Drive thing, and the drivers for it are already meant to be installed on XP, when i uninstall the drivers, and put the drive in again it installs the drivers, but still refuses to work

**Gabriel** · March 5th, 2006, 07:17 AM

Try formatting it with Manufacturer application (not WindowsXP native format) - for example Sandisk Utility
http://www.sandisk.com/Retail/Default.aspx?CatID=1354

**Goblin** · March 5th, 2006, 07:20 AM

Ok, I tried that program but it says that there is no USB device detected =(

**Gabriel** · March 5th, 2006, 07:31 AM

I meant downloading an application from the manufacturer of your Device.
everyone has its own - what is your removable storage make and model?

**Goblin** · March 5th, 2006, 07:41 AM

I have no idea.. =O
Nothing is written on it, and I don't still have the box with me...

**street1** · March 5th, 2006, 07:46 AM

Right-click My Computer, click Properties, click the Hardware tab then the Device Manager button. Scroll to the bottom and check the USB entries [click the +]. If the drive requires USB 2.0 you must have one or two entries in the USB section that mention Enhanced and/or USB 2.0.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...displaylang=en

**Goblin** · March 5th, 2006, 11:29 AM

I only have 1 of those things in the USB section, but that download link you gave me is for SP1, im on SP2.

**street1** · March 5th, 2006, 05:01 PM

Sorry you only mentioned XP. SP2 already has everything.

**Goblin** · March 7th, 2006, 12:27 PM

Well.. any other ideas why it's wonkyfied?

**Goblin** · March 17th, 2006, 12:34 PM

Anyone?

**Icouldgo41** · March 17th, 2006, 08:48 PM

I had a similar problem with a pen drive some time ago. Everything I tried to use to format or to access the files on it failed. I found this on the HP site. It worked great for me.

http://h18007.www1.hp.com/support/fi...reg_R1002_USEN

**Goblin** · March 18th, 2006, 09:00 AM

That download link dousn't work, but i found a mirror with a google search. I downloaded it, installed it, but it when i try to format it it says "There is no media on the specific device."

**Platypus** · March 18th, 2006, 10:17 AM

Assuming it isn't just faulty, possibly the only solution is to work out who made it and use their initialization utility. Unfortunately there are numerous flash drive manufacturers - perhaps you could recognise it's appearance from somewhere like here:

http://www.globalsources.com/manufac...ash-Drive.html

**Duke of Rezin** · March 31st, 2006, 10:02 PM

If you have a Windows XP install disk you may be able to format it with NTFS during the install routine. Plug it in beforehand, let the drivers read from the cd and go to the install procedure. XP will ask you which drive you want to install it to, select the USB drive, format it with NTFS and when XP cuts to the screen where it scans to see which files need to be copied, turn the computer off. Unplug the USB drive, boot into the regular Windows GUI and plug it back in. Windows will then do its thing to recognize the partition and you will have a new drive to play with.
Note that you will lose some visible capacity, but it's better than tossing it into the trash. It also depends on your motherboard recognizing a USB flash drive in the environment in which the XP install occurs. Can't promise anything, but it worked on an MSI motherboard I have.