Hi:

I have an 8GB flash drive that I tried to format it using Disk Management in Windows XP. After the formatting process failed I plugged the flash drive again in the USB port. The computer recognizes the drive assigning it a letter. When I click on the drive it returns a message saying now "Please insert a disk into drive J:" If I right click on the drive and try to format it it returns a message "There is no disk in drive J: Insert a disk, and then try again". In Disk Management the drive is shown as "Disk4: removable (J), No Media" How can I format this USB flash drive?

Any help/suggerstions etc. is appreciated
Percy

I’ve got a problem with the usb port and a flash memory stick on an XP pro system– sure would appreciate some help. I purchased a new cpu (XP OS)and was attempting to transfer files and data from my old system to the new (also XP OS). To do this I bought a 1 gig PNY memory stick. I plugged the stick into the new system usb port and got an ikon on “my computer”. Thinking everything was OK, I plugged the memory stick into the old system usb port preparing to down load various files. On the “my computer” screen I didn’t get an ikon. So, wondering what was wrong, I plugged the stick back into the new system – now, no ikon here either. I’m not that computer literate, but it looks like the memory stick has been “write protected” some how. Any idea what has happened and how I might fix it? I've got to say, I'm not very computer literate at all -- I've read the various threads about reassigning drive letters, deleting partitions, formating devices, etc. etc. -- so much "computerese" to me. Is there a written guide out there that can walk me through these fixes on a very primary level? Thanks. Geo.

THANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOU!!!! That worked for me, as well. I have a SanDisk Cruzer 2 (2gig) and it simply stopped working overnight. Not only did the fix you provided work, I didn't lose a single file in the process. And these files are mighty important to me, too. (Yes I had a back-up, but no it wasn't recent enough to keep me from cursing....) Btw...all who read, make sure you back-up your sticks regularly - for this very reason. Weekly is a good idea.... :-)

what happened with me, windows automatically updated my usb drivers. all i did was disable the enhanced host controller and all the attached usb devices started to detect. Good luck to all.

SisterG which one of the above solutions worked for you?

I have an issue with my usb flash drive. After a few hours of troubleshooting i came to the conclusion that it is a driver confliction. I disabled a driver on the device manager, and it worked, but then my system crashed after 30 seconds. When i use safe mode, i can disable the driver (usb2 Enhanced host controller-24cd) and the flash drive works perfect. All other usb devices work fine all the time, including printer and joystick. Any suggestions?

Hi

I would greatly appreciate some assistance with my flash drive.

I recently purchased a Kingston 2.0GM flash drive. however, whenever i attempt to store information on it, a pop up comes up saying -Cannot copy "file name" cannot find the specified file. make sure you specify the correct path and file name-.

I have tried the flash drive on several computers and it keeps saying the same thing. when i do a virus scan on it...it comes up as working properly. is there anything i can do on my PC to rectify this problem????

I was having a problem today with my flash drives. My computer was not recognizing them so I came to this site for help. I was able to resolve my problem by using a USB port in the back of the computer instead of the one in the front that I had been using. Although this front USB was working for some devices the flash drives were unable to be recognized by this "Enhanced" port. I don't know how it became enhanced but when I noticed that the other ports were not specified as enhanced in the device manager I tried one of them and they worked perfectly. I can't say this will work for everyone but if you have the same situation it is sure a quick fix, good luck.

Greetings all, after searching the net extensively and seeing a miriad of suggestions and theories as to what the problem is, I thought I would add my $.02 and hope it helps someone else. Drivers and software fixes are typically not the problem with WinXP. I know that auto-updates can break things without warning.....but to the folks that have "reloaded" their OS to no avail, try this scenario on for size.....teacher's computer that is identical to 5 others in the room, same image and OS setup as all the others, yet this one in particular WILL NOT under any circumstance, recognize any USB storage device. That means, all flash/thumb drives, USB enclosure Hard Drives, or any other type of memory/disk device. Yet, interestingly enough, the same ports work fine with other USB devices, mice, printers and bluetooth adapters.
Now this got me to think originally that it must be a software configuration
problem since the teacher was loading his own programs. After hours of troubleshooting, I just decided to re-image it back to a known working state (the way I gave it to him in the first place). Still no USB mass storage device would work. So, that should rule out software! Today, I started perusing the BIOS (BTW, I also reflashed the BIOS and set to factory defaults with no luck). I found a USB item in one of the BIOS menus and just started changing settings. VOILA, this box started recognizing my USB flash drives and external Hard Disks. So, the setting that worked was narrowed down to an "enable USB 2.0" needed to be "disabled". Now, maybe a chip on the MB for 2.0 is broke, but since you can use a 2.0 device on a 1.1 port (with some minor performance hit), I am satisfied with this solution.
Now, some thoughts, mice and other devices probably worked because they don't need to be 2.0 devices, not much throughput, but mass storage, yes, it makes sense that these devices are usually a 2.0 platform. So, look at your BIOS, my guess, my particular computer came shipped with a BIOS setting that worked but it was not a factory default. Some electrical event reset the BIOS to factory settings and broke the USB Mass Storage recognition. OR, something has gone bad on the MB and now 2.0 will never work at max efficiency. Either way, it works now and I'm sleeping again!

Good Luck,
John

Thanks, we just added a few new network drives here at work and i couldn't figure out why my flash drives were showing up intermittently. Apparently one of our network drives now uses the same letter as my flash drives. Thanks, this worked perfactly.

Hello, my understanding of the cheaper (and even a good deal of the more expensive) USB FLASH drives, is that the memory in them will NOT have all perfect cells, and will give the equivalent of "bad clusters", just like a normal disk. This in itself, may give some USB drivers difficulties in error-handling - and this is NOT a static situation - so if NEW clusters become bad - this will make the situation worse - and this is why some of the symptoms in this post are seen (IMHO). There is ALSO the issue of CORRUPT files that may get put on (very easy and common problem due to hung internet connection giving incomplete write from a copy/move) - or even from pulling the device while still active (slow or hung process still writing - so the file entry in the header blocks are bad). This WILL most ikely show up as a PROTECTED DRIVE. Now - I have seen an old reference here (2005 vintage) that reckoned that using a WIN98SE BOOT floppy will enable you to do an FSCK of the disk - followed by a format - this eanbles not only the new bad clusters to be handled (and bypassed in the file system map) but then ince cleared of the rubbish and corrupt files, yo will be able to use your drive again. WARNING- if you need to recover files first - assuming you can copy MOST OF the GOOD readable files to disk first - try the DISK utility from KILLDISK for those that wont copy. YOU will have PAY to register to actually recover stuff you need though (the free running will just lets you SEE what you COULD recover - at least you can triial it to see if it will do the job). QUESTION - will the WINME emergency boot disk do the same as regards the FDISK and FORMAT for a corrupt 256MB one I have??
NOTE: due to the corruption - the XP DISK mgmt utilities won't even touch it in its current state.
TD.

WOOPS! in my previous post I mentioned the KILLDISK utility - this is just for help with formatting when the system one will not do it. I should have mentioned that the Diskinternals FLASH RECOVERY (currently at 2.51 or so) or a similar product, should be used to attempt to RECOVER your important docs and pictures BEFORE using the KILLDISK. Be aware that like most of these "useful" utilities, you will actually have to pay for a small licence fee to actually complete the recovery to disk (although you can trial the "reading" of the data first to see if it is worthwhile investing in a licence fee). A lot of these DISKINTERNALS utilities are with the current PC PRO magazine (bu web downloadable from various sources too of course). TD.

Thank YOU! lol made an account just to say it...

Hey, i'm a university student in trinidad, the problem with my flash is that it opens my work in codes. When i open my flash drive to get my work a program like the C++ program opens............................................please help me i have no clue of wat to do.......!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hey, im new on techspot. Have a problem with my flashdisc. It was working fine on my computer and dvd machine. after about 5 minutes i wanted to use something on my usb and suddenly it didn't want to work at all. dvd machine and computer didn't detect the device at all. what can i do? or what is wrong? i haven't used it on other computers, so don't think its a virus. but its very frustating