Question

Flash drive not being recognized

Asked by: styche

Hello all,

I have a user who is having trouble with a new flash drive she was given. She went on vacation to Argentina with a friend and they were each given a flash drive containing pictures from their trip. The drive has a slot for an SD card (like one from a digital camera) to plug directly into and the pictures were loaded that way. The guy who loaded the pictures for them in Argentina showed them it worked and had the pictures on the drive.

However, now back from vacation, neither the friend or the user can access their drives. When she plugs the drive into a port the new hardware is installed and given a drive letter. When she goes to access the drive through My Computer the message "Please insert a disk into drive E:." is displayed. I have attached a screen shot of the message.

I tried rebooting her computer with the drive in the port and even renamed the drive to see if that was the problem. It wasn't.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

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Asked On
2009-10-22 at 05:55:39ID24834261
Tags

USB

,

flash drive

,

thumb drive

,

insert disk

Topic

Removable Backup Media

Participating Experts
2
Points
125
Comments
9

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Answers

 

by: stephenbyrdPosted on 2009-10-22 at 06:05:52ID: 25633629

Do you know how the guy formatted the card?  Was it FAT?  Also, what's the size of the SD card?

 

by: stephenbyrdPosted on 2009-10-22 at 06:06:15ID: 25633639

Also, was it copied from a Mac or a PC?

 

by: stychePosted on 2009-10-22 at 10:43:52ID: 25636931

I am not sure what the file system is, although the thumb drive is 4GB so I assume it is FAT32. The guy used a PC to copy the files and the users' laptops are both PCs as well.

 

by: stephenbyrdPosted on 2009-10-22 at 12:49:09ID: 25638225

Perhaps they didn't safely remove the drive before ejecting it.  This can cause errors.  You can try opening a command prompt and typing chkdsk e: /r and see if that helps at all.

 

by: stychePosted on 2009-10-22 at 12:56:11ID: 25638298

Thanks, I will try that tomorrow.

 

by: nobusPosted on 2009-10-23 at 00:21:56ID: 25641951

here a good program for fixing usb problems : http://safelyremove.com/
if you want to try things,  here a list of things to try :
first, you can download the latest drivers for the chipset, and reinstall it to update the USB root hubs

start>run>diskmgmt.msc      check if the usb devices show up in disk management, then run :   start>run>services.msc

In the listing look for removable storage service.
If it is set to Auto, and not started, then start it : click the Start link in the top left...

Change start type in registry

The idea is that the registry value for START has been changed to either 3 or 4 instead of 0, 1, or 2; 3 is Manual and 4 is disabled, 0 is SYSTEM (at kernel boot), 1 is SYSTEM (at login), 2 is AUTOMATIC
Default is 2 for this type of device

path:   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SYSTEM/CurrentControlSet/Services/USBSTOR

Click on "Start" then modify binary data --> change to 02 instead 03 or 04


In c:\windows\inf, look for usbstor.inf    -  If it is not there, you can copy it from another PC..When you find it, right click it and select Install

 

by: stychePosted on 2009-10-27 at 05:21:57ID: 25671537

OK, thanks Nobus. I will try these steps out and get back to you.

 

by: stychePosted on 2009-10-28 at 10:50:51ID: 25686132

Stephenbyrd and Nobus,

Thanks for all your help but I think I have figured out the mystery of the missing flash drive. I was previously talking to the user over email and went to pick up the drive today to give your recommendations a try. Upon looking at the USB device I realized it said "SD Memory Adapter" on the side. As I am sure you both realize, this is not a USB flash drive and would not show up as a drive without the SD card plugged into it!

 

by: stychePosted on 2009-10-28 at 10:52:42ID: 31644464

Very helpful guide for fixing USB problems. However, the problem turned out to be something different...which was my fault.

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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