Flash Drive vs. My computer

[Bookworm 1]

Hi everyone,

Bout a week ago, I bought a brand new 4 gig flashdrive from Microcenter. It works perfectly in every PC I've used it on, and I've already filled it up with loads of stuff. However, I can't get my computer at home to recognize it. What happens is that it says it's found the hardware, and tells me to restart, which I do. I then go to My Computer, only to see the the flash drive supposedly contains 0 bytes of data, with 0 bytes avalible. It's been drving me crazy, as I can't figure out what could possibly have gone wrong... can anyone help?

[Ma8thew 77]

What OS are you one? On '98 you need to install drivers for flash drives.

[Easy Bakes 253]

Originally posted by: Ma8thew What OS are you one? On '98 you need to install drivers for flash drives.quote>

 

What he said. I think that goes for '2000 as well, USB drivers were not  included in 2000.

[Bookworm 1]

I'm using XP Pro, 512 megs of RAM, and I'm not using Geoshell or anything like that, though I do use WindowBlinds, IconPackager, and the like.

[Easy Bakes 253]

XP should have no problems finding it and reading it.

have you tried to write to it with your home PC?

mabey it was accidently erased.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Originally posted by: Easy Bakes XP should have no problems finding it and reading it.

have you tried to write to it with your home PC?

mabey it was accidently erased.

quote>

Before you do that, take it someplace it was working and see if it still is.

[DOXXP29 5]

I got a Sony 512mb flas recently and my comp didn't recognize it, even though it was there. (Using Windows XP) What I finally did was put something on it from another computer, put it in my comp and searched for that file. Of course it found it. While I was there, I created a shortcut to desktop, and opened the flash like that. I know it sounds really weird, but hey, that's what I had to do. I wish I could give you more details, but it was a few months ago, and my memory is hazy. (What's new?!?) I think I assigned a drive letter to it when I had that file up. But the device manager and the hardware manager do not seem to recognize it. Wait a minute...it's coming back to me a little... Later on, after f**king around with it and getting I took out an existing removable drive (unplugged a card reader or something), plugged the flash into that USB port and assigned it there. The comp didn't seem to realize it was a different piece of hardware and opened it like it was the previous drive. The comp STILL doesn't recognize the flash like it's supposed to, though. I know this is somewhat ambiguous, but maybe you can get something out of all this. Wish I could be more specific. Sorry.

[Ma8thew 77]

[@DOXXP29]

Normally on Windows, drive letters are assigned 'First come first served'. Usually the first removable drive connected will be from the letter 'D' to 'G'. Your shortcut pointed at a drive letter, so it was probably pointing at the first removable drive connected. To make the drive's letter persistant:

Go to Administrative Tools on the CP. Select Computer Management, then expand the Storage item on the file tree and select disk management. Make sure your drive is connected. Right click on the Volume you want to change the letter of, and select 'Change Drive Letter and Paths'. The drive should be selected, so press Change. On the drop-down menu select the drive letter you want. Pick a letter that is a reasonable way along the alphabet, to prevent another drive being assigned the letter. Chnange the shortcut to point at that letter and you are done!

[EDIT]

BTW, DON'T TOUCH ANYTHING ELSE IN COMPUTER MANAGEMENT ESPECIALLY NOT IN DRIVE MANAGEMENT.

Disclaimer: I accept no responsability if you royally screw up your computer.