Memory Stick (Sandisk Cruzer Mini) HELP NEEDED

Don't throw it away. Hell I'll take it if you just want to get rid of it. I have a new one now and it has two small programs on it. I can zip them up for ya if you'd like.

Does the computer see something attached to the USB drive but its unrecognizable? I had this problem recently and again I sent the drive back to the manufacturer. They sent me a new one. I lost the information that was on the disk though. Word of advise... If anyone uses there flash drive to save important information, save it to a cd as well. These things aren't bulletproof yet LOL

Hello,

I had the same problem and proceeded as follows:
1. Start - Control Panel - Performance and Maintenance - Administrative Tools
2. Doubleclick Computer Management
3. Click on Drive Management (in the left Column)
4. Richt-click your Memory Stick (appearing in the right column) and choose Make Partition.
5. Bingo!

Cheers.

I bought a cruzer mini, and it came with minimal paper work. The cruzer lock was just an encryption program that I had to download off their site. It doesn't lock the drive, it's just a standalone encryption program that you can put on the disk, and I don't think it works if you run it off your hard drive. Somehow the cruzer mini is tattoed. I've heard that some thumb drives come with a write protect slide on the the side of it similar too a floppy disks, but mine doesn't have one of those. Other than that I've never had a problem with it. It's pretty durable, and it's autodetected by XP. The light always lights up. I would try a different USB port.

I have a problem with my 256 MB Sandisk. Explorer shows no files on the stick. However, the properties show 121 MB used. I can not place more than 130 MB in it. What may have happened. Google search did not provide Sandisk web site.

Same here!
I have the 256mb Cruzer Mini. This is the ONLY way I can get a few Dell PC's at work to recognize the drive. All the IBM's see it with no problems. I have asked why this is on another thread here but never got an answer.

I recently ran into an XP laptop and I plugged my sandisk into the USB port, and no light came on. So I plugged it into a desktop and it worked fine. So I went into the bios settings on the laptop and I chose the option to "enable legacy USB". Then I booted XP back up and sure enough I plugged the sandisk Cruzer Mini in and it was found by XP and I was able to use it.

OK, this is just an FYI post for future people that find this thread.

I had the exact problem that the original poster had - mine was a cruzer mini 128MB. It just straight up died on me one day.

I tried every trick and tool in this post and many others. Nothing worked.

Here's the FYI part. I had access to a MAC w/ OS X. I plugged in the drive and it formatted it immediately, which was not able to be done on any windows system I tried.

It's working fine now. Strange, but whatever works.

I have similar problem with Cruzer Titanium. Windows XP does detect is but
is not shown in the Explorer.
Apparently the problem was solved very easily. Win XP automatically
maps such storage devices on F: drive but my F: was mapped to a different drive on the network. And XP can NOT (!) change the drive letter automatically.
So, just go to Control Panel- Performance&Maintenance- AdminTools- ComputerManagement-Storage-DiskManagement. Find your drive and reassign the letter for this drive. Then click Explore and here you go. Explorer now shows it as there is no conflict anymore.
BTW, some of folks before wrote that Explorer shows the drive only if it's inserted before XP is booted I think it's exactly same problem. XP depends on the order of mapping different drives on the startup. So, if you resolve this you might not need to restart WinXP every time...

my Cruzer had died for several months, and it's back to life this morning.

well, after a long contemplation, I realized that my Cruzer Mini worked JUST FINE on computers with USB 1.1 ports.
(it works with my dad's PC, with school's PCs, and with an old-skool Toshiba Portege. all of them were running WinXP, and still using USB 1.1 ports.)

so I dashed to my PC this morning, went to BIOS Setup, and seeked for the "Onboard EHCI Controller" (which is the USB 2.0 controller), and turned the option to "Disabled". I restarted the computer, logged in to WinXP, then I plugged in my Cruzer Mini... voila! it worked!

hope this solution works for y'all too.

I'm having this same problem, HOWEVER, on only one computer. On all the other computers I can access the drive successfully (read/write/delete). I'm also seeing an advisory that the disk will work better with USB 2.0. Meanwhile, formatting the Sandisk seems to be a quick fix but not a complete resolution to the issue; what's the incompatiblity? Also, I can successfully access "other" USB key drives on this one computer. Dunno yet what I'll do.

Thanks, I had the exact problem and this fixed it.

nice 1

cheers m8 that link worked fantastic


you are a true legend

works

thanks! this works , lost my format after re-installing winxp
my is a cruzer 512mb

Please read the FAQs at the top of this forum regarding flash drives.
Cruiser flash drives are notorious for being unstable.
ALWAYS backup.

Admin/ Computer Experiment Tech

I got the Sandisk Cruzer micro2GB today. After several attempt to formatting it, I was able to accomplish it on my Win vista home premium.
I don't know this will work for you it's worth trying.

After installing the Cruzer, access it via my computer.
You should see two removable drive, one is read only.
Right click it (it's a cd icon)
Go to property, select the Readyboost tab and check do not use this device. Apply the changes.

Now go to you the other removable drive and format it.

I hope that works for you.