usb flash drive stopped working

[jimmyrules712]

ive got a 256 mb usb 2.0 flash drive thats a little over a year old and has always worked fine until now.

Now when i plug it into my windows xp computer the thing pops up saying it found it, but hwen i open the folder to veiw the files it shows all the files ina folder for a second and then the window closes, and if i go into my computer at that point and double click on the removable disk, it says "please insert a disk into drive I:, as if the disk isnt there, but its reading it because the remoavable disk icon is there.

is this thing shot or fixable? do these normalyl go bad after a period of time?

[edrod13]

I experienced something similar with my pen drive once when I did not properly unmount the drive through the add/remove utility. My files somehow became corrupt and they could not be read. Luckily they were not too important and I just formatted the drive. After formatting the drive, it worked just like before. If what you have on the drive is not that important you might want to format the drive and give that a try. HTH

Edrod13

[amose]

something similar happend to me.
i plugged it to another PC and then i was readable again in the first PC.

[jimmyrules712]

it says it cannot be formatted, and ive tried 3 other PCs, all same problem

[Cricket]

iand ive tried 3 other PCs, all same problemSounds like it's kaput.

:) Cricket

[jimmyrules712]

are these somewhat prone to going bad after a while?

[Cricket]

I don't know how long they're supposed to last. I've had a 128MB USB flashdrive for about 2 years now and haven't had any problems with it. HAL9000 has had his flash drive for a lot longer and I think he said it's working fine too...he keeps it on his keychain. I don't remember if his went through the washing machine or if it was someone else's.

And I don't hear about too many problems with them here at PC Mech.

:) Cricket

[jimmyrules712]

yeah i keep mine on my keychain too, and mines been washed, but that was 6 months ago, and its worked fine until now. I cant be exactly sure how it went wrong though because my mother was using it to move some files from her old laptop to her new one, and it worked fine when i gave it to her, but 30 minutes later she came back to me with it saying it had broke, hasnt worked since. :rolleyes:

[Cricket]

Oh...your mother, huh? Uh...no comment.

:) Cricket

[rjfvillarosa]

Now Cricket I am sure she didn't realise it wasn't a biscuit when she dunked it in her coffee. :rolleyes:
Jimmy is there any way you can force a format, either with killdisk or in DOS?

[jimmyrules712]

havnt tried, i only tried to format htru XP

[rjfvillarosa]

Do you know anyone with a machine running 98 or ME that you could boot into DOS, see if it will pick up your Istick in DOS and maybe format it, chances are you will need USB legacy enabled in DOS to pick up the Istick.

[glc]

Flash drives will not work in 98 without a driver - so it has to be in Windows. I doubt it will work in ME's DOS, if you can even get to DOS.

[rjfvillarosa]

Flash drives will not work in 98 without a driver - so it has to be in Windows. I doubt it will work in ME's DOS, if you can even get to DOS.
Any other way of forcing a format on this device??
I have one that I use all the time and I would be mortified if it broke down on me.