usb stick don't work on other computers

[9523johnp]

Hi, I have a problem with a usb stick not working on other computers. windows 8.1 formatted exfat 62.4 gb. It used to work on windows 8.1, windows 7 and Xp however put it into a computer with Xp and it says it needs formatting and looking into properties it comes up has "raw" I don't understand why. I have other usb sticks which I have no problem with. One the computer which has windows 8.1 I done a disk part see attachment.

[patio]

Why exFat ? ?

XP i don't believe reads it...only older Win versions...
Does it show as RAW on any of the other PC's ? ?

[9523johnp]

Hi, thanks for getting back to me. I put it into a laptop with windows 7, comes up as exfat I done a scan disk on windows 7 and it found no errors. put it back into the XP machine and it says it needs formatting. (I have 2 XP machines one for files and one for cctv neither on the internet, I get the same on both XP machines) It used to work on any machine including daughters laptop windows 10

[9523johnp]

P.S. should I try formatting it ntfs?

[BC_Programmer]

Formatting it as NTFS is one option. NTFS, however, isn't really optimized for removable drives, as I understand.

exFat was added in Vista SP1. it was more or less an improved FAT32. You could reformat your flash drive as FAT32- doing so could require additional tools. You can find some of those described in This article on the subject.

Now, one might simply say that exFat is too new for Windows XP. And that would typically be the case- but, that is where it get's interesting- because Microsoft did release a patch to some of their previous operating systems, including Windows XP, that added exFAT support. These were found as KB955704.However, as you can see on the associated Support Page Despite there being instructions for Windows XP,  and despite the other released windows versions having a link- they seem to have specifically pulled the Windows XP version! There is seemingly no explanation for this.

I did some searching. First I stumbled onto this Microsoft Answers post, where somebody else has the same issue. it is met by the "support" of one MVP who apparently is as dense as lead- asking "what problems are you having that you think it will solve" and blabbering about security updates and Internet connections.

I did find a source for this update, another individual made  these same discoveries and uploaded the update file in question. But the site owner was concerned about traffic "Do NOT link to this site from ANY kind of high volume service or web site. Doing so will make this page go away.". I don't know whether this forum counts, but it's possible this page could get google indexed and if I linked to it that could count... Because of that, I've gone ahead redownloaded the file and rehosted it myself.

As far as I can tell the file is still digitally signed and doesn't appear to have been tampered with.

[9523johnp]

thanks for your surgestions but I could not get them to work. I did convert the stick to fat32 using smartdisk fat32 format utility however XP does not recongise it now. time here 21.30 B.S.T. (putting it to bed)

[Geek-9pm]

I have other usb sticks which I have no problem with

That might be the issue.
Assume that stick is marginal and it drops out of spec on your computer.

If you need an explanation, think of shoes. Say you shoe size is 10 and yhou have several pair of size ten shoes that fit well, But one size ten shoe does not fit well. our brother, who has the same shoe size, days it fits him well. Do you see the point?

Windows has limited ability to tell you that USB device is marginal. The parameters that are used indifferent versions of windows are slightly different. This has been documented, but not widely publicized. The simple answer is to just use good USB devices that are well inside specifications.

If this is a brand name device, report the failure tote maker. The brand name makers take pride in their products. But the makers of thec heap stuff don't want to hear from you.

As for XP, the issue might  be  resolved with edits to the registry, but I am not going there. That would not not make a cheep device better,  rather it would make the system more tolerant of a defective device.

[9523johnp]

Thanks for all your help, I think I will discard it and buy one from a reputible manufacture