usb drive problem

[firefighting]

I have a 1GB Kingston stick that seems to work fine in every way (regardless of OS) except on my own pc .

When I insert it into one of my ports, it doesn't show in the drives listing menu. However in Disk Management but I cannot explore, format or change the drive letter. I just get an error message. I have formated on another pc and even renamed but the result is still the same. I guess it may be logged in the registry.

Do drives have some sort of embeded tag that is recognised in the registry which is blocking it's operation on my pc and cannot be removed even after formatting?

I know 1GB sticks are cheap and replacing it is the easy answer, but I have to get to the bottom. any help most appreciated. TIA

[JohnMason]

Originally Posted by firefighting

I have a 1GB Kingston stick that seems to work fine in every way (regardless of OS) except on my own pc .

When I insert it into one of my ports, it doesn't show in the drives listing menu. However in Disk Management but I cannot explore, format or change the drive letter. I just get an error message. I have formated on another pc and even renamed but the result is still the same. I guess it may be logged in the registry.

Do drives have some sort of embeded tag that is recognised in the registry which is blocking it's operation on my pc and cannot be removed even after formatting?

I know 1GB sticks are cheap and replacing it is the easy answer, but I have to get to the bottom. any help most appreciated. TIA

Do other sticks work well in your pc?

I know that when you put usb devices in to your pc it stores a record locally of it. There's a program you can use to delete those records, I just can't think of the bloody name! If you still have the problem on monday PM me and i'll try to find out. :-)

[kmount]

Do other 1GB Kingston sticks work in your PC?

What is the error?

[firefighting]

Originally Posted by JohnMason

Do other sticks work well in your pc?

I know that when you put usb devices in to your pc it stores a record locally of it. There's a program you can use to delete those records, I just can't think of the bloody name! If you still have the problem on monday PM me and i'll try to find out. :-)

Yes other sticks including Kingston. I even copied the data back on to another Kingston stick and that worked. It just this one stick that won't work.
Very sorry, paranoia is setting in

[firefighting]

Originally Posted by kmount

Do other 1GB Kingston sticks work in your PC?

What is the error?

Yep! other 1GB Kingston sticks work even with my data put on them. I tried 3 BTW.

[Andrew_C]

You don't have another drive with a letter clashing do you? I've seen that one more than once.

[firefighting]

Originally Posted by Andrew_C

You don't have another drive with a letter clashing do you? I've seen that one more than once.

No drive clashing as I can add another drive and it is fine. It just seem to be this one drive. I cannot work it out. There must be a way the registry knows what usb is inserted!

[AngryTechnician]

I've seen something like this before. Can you do a quick test; if you can see a drive letter in Disk Management, try opening the Command Prompt and changing to that drive letter, then see if you can execute a dir command.

[firefighting]

Originally Posted by AngryTechnician

I've seen something like this before. Can you do a quick test; if you can see a drive letter in Disk Management, try opening the Command Prompt and changing to that drive letter, then see if you can execute a dir command.

I can see the drive in DM (see attached) but cannot change letter, read or format drive. Anyother PC I can do all of the above.

When I try to do any of the above on my PC, I get an error (see attached).

[OutToLunch]

Try zapping all previously connected USB flash drives that the PC remembers with USBDeview - View all installed/connected USB devices on your system so they're properly redetected next time you plug in...

[powdarrmonkey]

Restart the logical disk management service (both of them).

[JohnMason]

Originally Posted by OutToLunch

Try zapping all previously connected USB flash drives that the PC remembers with USBDeview - View all installed/connected USB devices on your system so they're properly redetected next time you plug in...

Thats the one I was looking up. Just got round to finding it and it's already posted

[firefighting]

Originally Posted by OutToLunch

Try zapping all previously connected USB flash drives that the PC remembers with USBDeview - View all installed/connected USB devices on your system so they're properly redetected next time you plug in...

When you say "zap", do you mean from the list display in USBDeview?
I can see the listing and the properties of the drives and what looks like a rogue entry! What ever I do, the list just seems the same.

I could use this listing and find the drive in the registry and delete from there. Is this what you mean?

[JohnMason]

Originally Posted by firefighting

When you say "zap", do you mean from the list display in USBDeview?
I can see the listing and the properties of the drives and what looks like a rogue entry! What ever I do, the list just seems the same.

I could use this listing and find the drive in the registry and delete from there. Is this what you mean?

Personally i'd "delete" all usb sticks from there. Don't touch the root hubs and stuff (which are hidden by default), but any usb devices should just be deleted. That way they'll load up fresh next time they are plugged in.

If you have a usb mouse though, don't delete that one... Or at least remember you are deleting it... I certainly didn't make that mistake then panic when my mouse wouldn't work, honest!

[OutToLunch]

Sorry, right click the device in the Device Name column and choose uninstall. Do this for all USB flash drives which have been previously connected, wouldn't recommend doing it for usb printers as some can get a bit confused afterwards when redetected.