what's wrong My USB drive can't play in my PC?

[chrissai]

Guys 'n' Gals,

A month or so ago I tried to plug my Patriot XT USB drive into my PC (XP SP2) to download some photos. The USB pen said it was being charged but the PC  seems to have no inkling that it's connected. I can't force it to pick  it up when it can't see anything there at all. I've not been able to connect it to the PC since.
Can anyone suggest what might (not) be happening?

Thanks,all
--
chris

[Aegis]

The USB pen said it was being charged but the PC  seems to have no inkling that it's connected.

Being charged?  I've not seen a message like that when I've connected my USB drives to any system...

[homer]

The USB pen said it was being charged but the PC  seems to have no inkling that it's connected.

Being charged?  I've not seen a message like that when I've connected my USB drives to any system...

beat me to it.

are you plugging the drive into a USB port that you know works?

[Aegis]

Makes me think, Homer, that it's being detected as a different kind of device?

[homer]

makes me think that the USB port is fubar'ed.

chrissai, have you checked in "my computer"? does the device show up in there? what is this "being charged" message that you received?

[chrissai]

I meant the PC said the USB drive was connect but the PC can't read the flash pen ,and I can't see any files in "my computer"

[Aegis]

Will the drive connect to another pc? 

Do you have another port you can try on this pc?

[chrissai]

I tried to plug it to my friend's PC,the situation is also like my PC

[Aegis]

The drive itself may have malfunctioned or quit. 

I had a Lexar brand drive that unexpectedly quit after about a year...

[chrissai]

um........... If the USB flash is wrong,i had to buy another,it's a dam bad thing!

[mektek]

The link you pointed to said the USB drive comes with a lifetime warranty. That means you should be able to get a replacement free.

[Aegis]

Yes, it's nice to not have to worry about the price of the hardware, but the problem is the data -- if it's not backed up elsewhere, it can't be replaced.

The problem with the drive that quit on me is that it was my backup.

[truenorth]

Aegis,If i understand correctly;
1. This device had worked in this computer correctly before?
2.It is not "files" that you are looking for in "my computer" it is the presence of a "removable device'--when it is plugged into "any" USB port is there any reference to "something" removeable in my computer?
3.What does your device manager say about your USB hubs?
4.Does any other device work in any USB ports? IE: printers,scanners,mouse,keyboard,card reader,etc.?
5. Are your USB ports "enabled" in your BIOS?
truenorth

[Aegis]

Sorry, true -- I wasn't trying to jump on a thread with a problem.  I was just remarking that I had a USB drive quit on me.  Error messages on every computer into which I plugged the drive.  No warning.  It worked, and then the next time I went to use it, it didn't work.

I now advise people that when they use USB for backup, have a second drive, USB or other, as secondary backup.

[BC_Programmer]

this sounds familiar- I had a SanDisk Cruzer Mini 256MB that would consistently cause my laptop to freeze during access. Inevitably I'd need to unplug it without properly ejecting it. So It lost all data a few times, and then one day it was suddenly detected as a "USB Pen Flash" instead of "SanDisk Cruzer Mini" or "Mass Storage Device". Then a few times it was recognized, but only contained garbled filenames, and had a Total Capacity that made no sense, like 200KB or once (lol) 3GB or something. Totally messed up. I recall that Flash memory has a limited number of write cycles while remaining usable...