flash drive not working, help.

hello, i am new to the forums...with a quick question i just bought a flash drive (16gb) and everything was running ok, my desktop recognized it...but now it shows zero available space and capacity, and also i am unable to open its folder, and the computer doesnt recognize it. is there something i can do to fix this. thanks in advance

 

The first thing we need to know is whether you have actually used the drive up to now or is this a first attempt? Is there anything on the drive at all?

I see from your profile that you are using XP Home which means that you should not have had to install any software in order to use a usb flash drive, but did you install anything that came with the drive?

 

i bought it a few days ago, and today is the first time i used it, there is nothing on the drive, well there wasnt it cause now i cant open it. the drive didnt come with any software or anything i can install, just the drive. when i try to double click on removeable drive under my computer folder, it says please insert a disk into drive G.

 

It seems that drive G is being recognized as an optical drive.

I am going to suggest you try something very basic first and, if it does not work we may need to see some disk management screenshots that will be explained later.

All this assumes that there is nothing physically wrong with either the usb port or the drive itself. Go to your device manager (Right click My Computer > manage and select device manager.) With the drive in place locate it in device manager and select uninstall the drivers in the driver tab. Once that is done remove the drive and reboot the computer with the drive in place. If all goes well the computer should recognize the drive.

How many drives do you have and how are they designated. Why is this drive listed a G?

 

i have hard drives C, D, E.. and dvdrw drive F. After doing all the steps you mentioned above...the computer auto installed the drive..but when i go to my computer and double click on drive G it says the same thing (please insert drive G) I dont know why i am having trouble with this flash drive because i have another one different brand and it works fine. maybe there is something about the drive that doesnt let the computer recognize it, maybe the format..who knows.

 

You should not have to format a simple flash drive in XP. Have you tried it in another PC? Another USB Port? On the whole they are not they are not the most reliable devices. Before I would start trying to find a problem with the PC or Windows, I would make sure the thing is actually not defective.

 

i dont have another computer with me right now but i can try that some other day. it is funny because the first time i inserted the drive i was able to see its capacity and available space, and i was trying to sync an avi file (movie) into it using windows media player and all of a sudden it stopped working lol

 

I see where there may be a problem there. You would be far better off simply copying the avi to the drive from its location on your PC rather than try to sync it through WMP.

I have seen this before and you may want to try to simply format the drive and start over. Since you have nothing on it there is no danger and, if it is not defective that may work for you.

Simply right click on My Computer, select Manage and then disk managment. If the drive shows up simply select it and click on format.

Feel free to attach a screenshot of disk management if you are not sure.

 

i got a screen image i wanted you to see, let me know if it helps. check attachments

 

Hi Rub8322. BeeCeeBee,will be back shortly.Just ask that you be patient, for a short time,and he will assist you further.

 

Rub,

So you installed the drive - did you attempt to put anything on it>?
try right clicking say a word file and then send to - does G:/ show as a place to send the document to?

 

Ok Rub, you are in the wrong place.

Right click on "My Computer"and a menu will come up. Select "Manage"and open it.

You will see this.


Click where the arrow show "Disk Management" you will get something like this



If you click to open the drive (my flash drive is where the arrow is ) you will be given the option to format.

You will be given the option to select a format and will probably be limited to FAT or FAT32. If that is the case choose FAT32.

If you feel more comfortable feel free to post the disk management screen shot before you act.

If you choose to follow the directions I have given you remember that disk management is not to be fooled with. Don't try anything else.

If you simply want to skip all this and just reformat the drive just Right click on the drive as it shows in the screenshot you posted and select Format from there.

 

i installed the drive the minute i got it and then the next minute it wasnt working. when i right click on a file, and then send to..it shows removeable drive G as an option to send to.

 

how can i post a screen shot like the one you just did, this way you can see better and faster. i want to show you a screen image of the result of the steps you gave me.

 

here is the image i was talking about. drive G (flash drive) was plugged in usb port, but as you can see it shows no information, only shows that i have it plugged in the usb port.

 

Off hand it looks like the drive either does need formatting or it is just toast.

Follow the simple way at the end of my last post to you and if that doesn't work for you I would return the drive to where you bought it and try again.

If you do get it working or, if you wind up with a new drive, just copy the files you want saved onto the disc (drag and drop) that will work fine with .avi files.

 

ok thank you all for the great help, i guess i will have to return the drive back and get another one. Off topic: why is it that sometimes i try to transfer an avi movie file from my desktop to a flash drive to play it on my ps3 and the ps3 doesnt recognize it, this happens most of the time i do it by draggin the file from folder to folder.

 

When you say it doesn't recognize it do you mean it doesn't show on a menu or it just doesn't play. I know almost nothing about the modern Playstation but it is a computer. It may just be a matter of the PS3 not having the proper codecs to play these files.

There are people here who know about game platforms, I am just not one of them.

 

i would say both cases, sometimes i plug the flash drive into the ps3 and the movie doesnt show on the menu and sometimes it shows but when i try to play it an error comes out, it must be something about the codecs like you say.

 

You need to check that your PS3 has the right codecs installed as you say and you do this by updating your PS3 also - your drive will be formatted in NTFS and your PS3 needs it to be FAT32 to see it properly