Rummy Posted April 10, 2009 Posted April 10, 2009 (edited) So I bought a cheap old stick this one time, and it was good and worked, for about a month. I tried it on a mate's macbook one time and it wouldn't recognise it, so I just presumed the thing had a problem with macs, but since then it hasn't worked at all. I plug it into a computer, and it makes the 'd-dunk' sound that computers make when you plug stuff into the usb! It recognises it to the extent I then get the Safely Remove Hardware option, and it knows it's a USB mass storage device. However, that's all. Nothing else seems to recognise it! It doesn't show up in my computer, it doesn't show up in Disk Management(something I know little about but had suggested to me for formatting it). I'm wondering if there is any way I can somehow force this thing to reformat, I'm sure there must be some software out there that could, I just don't know where to start really. I'm hoping that might fix it up into working order again? EDIT: Dunno if it's of any note, but it has a little red light in the back that flashes when it's doing stuff, quite standard. This thing flashes constantly after being plugged in now, indefinitely. Edited April 10, 2009 by Rummy
Guest Jordan Posted April 10, 2009 Posted April 10, 2009 If you can't see it in disk management, thats a big issue. I'm guessing you've tried other USB ports?
Rummy Posted April 11, 2009 Author Posted April 11, 2009 Ahh, yes, yes I have. Tried it on all the USB ports on this laptop, then I thought I'd try it on the XP comp downstairs, still no luck. It KNOWS it's a USB Mass Storage device, it KNOWS it's connected, it just seems to struggle with figuring out that it's a drive all itself, so I was thinking there must be something on the stick like a TOC that tells the comp what it is and what it's upto, and that's what's corrupted. If you got/took an unformatted disk, floppy or hard drive/other form of disk, and put it in a comp, would it recognise it before formatting? My general inclination is to no, though it's been a long time since I've dealt with anything that needed formatting, and that was floppies way back in the day.
RoadKill Posted April 13, 2009 Posted April 13, 2009 Ahh, yes, yes I have. Tried it on all the USB ports on this laptop, then I thought I'd try it on the XP comp downstairs, still no luck. It KNOWS it's a USB Mass Storage device, it KNOWS it's connected, it just seems to struggle with figuring out that it's a drive all itself, so I was thinking there must be something on the stick like a TOC that tells the comp what it is and what it's upto, and that's what's corrupted. If you got/took an unformatted disk, floppy or hard drive/other form of disk, and put it in a comp, would it recognise it before formatting? My general inclination is to no, though it's been a long time since I've dealt with anything that needed formatting, and that was floppies way back in the day. Unformatted/unpartitioned drives should still show up in disk management, so you can partition and format it (and assign it a drive letter). If it doesn't show up in disk management on more than one machine I'd say the stick is knackered
Recommended Posts