[pseudo-geek]

My Dell Latitude D620 (XP SP2) seems to think all USB flash drives are unformatted -- started after I began hibernate process, and pulled out flash drive before hibernation was complete.

I get the classic "Drive E: is unformatted; do you want to Format now?" but every time I say "yes" and try to format, XP tells me formatting didn't work.

Figuring that I'd killed the flash drive, I went and bought a new one (after having read lots of stuff on-line about folks having trouble formatting USB flash drives -- but all seem to focus on the flash drive being the problem) -- same problem with the new flash drive.

Silly me, before buying a new drive, I should've tried the old one in other computers -- sure enough, have tried BOTH flash drives on three or more computers (desktops running XP, one running Vista) and they work fine in all three.

Plus, I've tried every other type of USB device I own (external hard drives, printers, digital cameras, etc.) and they all work fine in all four USB ports. Also, all my other drives and devices still work fine. Windows recognizes that I've plugged in a USB flash drive, and even gives it a drive letter -- but it thinks the format is RAW and the drive needs to be formatted before use....

Pseudo-Geek's conclusion: It's clearly NOT the flash drives, and it's clearly NOT the USB ports, so it's gotta be something in WINDOWS that is hosed up -- am I right, or is there something I'm missing?

Have found nothing on Windows support sites to help...

Anyone have any ideas?

Thanks in advance.

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First, have you tried updating the USB drivers in device manager? Do not auto update but see if you can manually reinstall the original USB drivers.

You might also look into this website, about 3/4 down, at the "USB Drive not working stable"

http://www.uwe-siebe...btrouble_e.html

Microsoft also has a USB Flash driveManager software that may help.

http://www.microsoft...;displaylang=en

Micorsoft suggests removing USB drivers and reinstalling.

Remove and reinstall all USB controllers
To remove and reinstall all USB controllers, follow these steps:
1. Click Start, click Run, type sysdm.cpl in the Open box, and then click OK.
2. Click the Hardware tab.
3. Click the Device Manager button.
4. Expand Universal Serial Bus controllers.
5. Right-click every device under the Universal Serial Bus controllers node, and then click Uninstall to remove them one at a time.
6. Restart the computer, and then reinstall the USB controllers.
7. Plug in the removable USB storage device, and then test to make sure that the issue is resolved.

http://support.micro...kb/310575/en-us

Now i tried the above on a similar problem with the IDE/ata atapi drivers on a compaq computer. It did fix the original problem, but for a monthi was getting a error on startup about the IDE drives. One day it just fixed itself( i don't know how).

SRX660

[SRX660]

First, have you tried updating the USB drivers in device manager? Do not auto update but see if you can manually reinstall the original USB drivers.

You might also look into this website, about 3/4 down, at the "USB Drive not working stable"

http://www.uwe-siebe...btrouble_e.html

Microsoft also has a USB Flash driveManager software that may help.

http://www.microsoft...;displaylang=en

Micorsoft suggests removing USB drivers and reinstalling.

Remove and reinstall all USB controllers
To remove and reinstall all USB controllers, follow these steps:
1. Click Start, click Run, type sysdm.cpl in the Open box, and then click OK.
2. Click the Hardware tab.
3. Click the Device Manager button.
4. Expand Universal Serial Bus controllers.
5. Right-click every device under the Universal Serial Bus controllers node, and then click Uninstall to remove them one at a time.
6. Restart the computer, and then reinstall the USB controllers.
7. Plug in the removable USB storage device, and then test to make sure that the issue is resolved.

http://support.micro...kb/310575/en-us

Now i tried the above on a similar problem with the IDE/ata atapi drivers on a compaq computer. It did fix the original problem, but for a monthi was getting a error on startup about the IDE drives. One day it just fixed itself( i don't know how).

SRX660