Having trouble with flash drives, please help!!

[waterinthefuel]

I have two different USB flash drives that I'm trying to get to work. I can get one to work, but with the other, in the "my computer" menu I don't see it pop up as a removable drive even though earlier when I plugged it in it recognized it and said it was ready for use. It lights up when I plug it in, but still, nothing. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Jerico]

Re: Having trouble with flash drives, please help!!

When you removed them, did you do the safely remove hardware first? If you don't it will get confused and eventually crash the flash drive(s).

When you plug a flash drive in Windows catalogs what's on the drive. if you don't do the safely remove hardware (should be on the task bar near the clock), it doesn't recatalog the drive when plugged back in. If you have 2 identical drives it will get them confused and crash either or both. If you make changes to one on another computer, it won't recatalog and will corrupt it.

If I have totally confused you or you have a question, send me a PM.

 

[TilliamWe]

Re: Having trouble with flash drives, please help!!

I've done the same thing. The only other thing to try, in my opinion, is in "My Computer" when you don't see the flash drive listed, right click in an empty space and click "refresh". If the flash drive doesn't magically appear, it's not going to, and I actually got rid of my last computer without ever fixing that problem.

 

[Jerico]

Re: Having trouble with flash drives, please help!!

Usually when that happens, as long as the USB port is good, right click my computer, then click on hardware and device manager. Look for something with a red mark or yellow warning. Troubleshoot it from there. More than likely either there is a driver missing or Windows didn't properly install the drive when it was plugged in.

 

[waterinthefuel]

Re: Having trouble with flash drives, please help!!

I got it to work. I went to the device manager and disabled the USB mass storage devices in the list one by one until the light went out on the one I couldn't get to work. I re-enabled it, uninstalled the drivers, and then unplugged the unit itself. Upon replugging it back in Windows went through the same thing it did before and it works perfectly. I can even use both my flash drives at the same time on different USB ports now, cool huh?

Thanks for the help guys!!

 

[Jerico]

Re: Having trouble with flash drives, please help!!

Awesome! Just be sure to use the safely remove before you unplug them in the future.

 

[TilliamWe]

Re: Having trouble with flash drives, please help!!

glad yours worked that way water. I tried that on mine and it still didn't work. But I too plug in two flash drives now and transfer info between them. One is personal, one is business. So yeah, it's kinda sweet! Good for you!

 

[jeeperman]

Re: Having trouble with flash drives, please help!!

related question:

I use a flashdrive for the readyboost feature of Windows.
I am using a 2gb and Windows is utilizing 895mb or just under half of the total flash drive capacity.

If I use a bigger flash drive such as an 8gb, will readyboost use just under 4gb or is it topped out at 895mb ?

 

[Bob_VT]

Re: Having trouble with flash drives, please help!!

related question:

I use a flashdrive for the readyboost feature of Windows.
I am using a 2gb and Windows is utilizing 895mb or just under half of the total flash drive capacity.

If I use a bigger flash drive such as an 8gb, will readyboost use just under 4gb or is it topped out at 895mb ?

Here is a C&P

For a device to be compatible and useful it must conform to the following requirements:

-The capacity of the removable media must be at least 256 MB (250 after formatting)
-Devices larger than 4 GB will have only 4 GB used for ReadyBoost
-The device should have an access time of 1ms or less
-The device must be capable of 2.5 MB/s read speeds for 4 KB random reads spread uniformly across the entire device and 1.75 MB/s write speeds for 512KB random writes spread uniformly across the device
-The device must have at least 235 MB of free space
-NTFS, FAT16 and FAT32 are supported
-The initial release of ReadyBoost supports one device
-The recommended amount of memory to use for Windows ReadyBoost acceleration is one to three times the amount of random access memory (RAM) installed in your computer