Vista Stick Format

[boddamloon]

Wondering if anyone could help me out, I have a 8GB memory stick which i been using for past 6 months without a hitch. I had music on it and had been playing it in Hifi through USB for last 3 days until it came up it no longer could be read. I plugged it into Laptop on Vista and after about 8 mins it showed up in my computer and when i right click it takes another 8 mins and when i click on Format it does nothing at all.

I guess its corrupt somehow but is there anyway i can format it and clear it. When its plugged in its slowing down OS and sometimes my internet cuts off and i need to restart laptop.

Had a search on net but never came upon nothing either that or it was all way over my head.

Cheers!!!

[aido]

To be fair it may just be buggered?

Have you tried it on any other computers?

If you open a Windows command prompt (enter cmd into the Vista search box and click ok) then type the following:

format x:

Just replace X with whatever the drive letter is that the USB key has been assigned. Be careful not to specify a HDD as it will wipe it!

[FuntimePhil]

mate all hard drives have a shelf life. especially sticks, if its busted its busted. hope you had it all backed up

[boddamloon]

Cheers Aido, I tried that but it says insert new disc for drive e

[boddamloon]

i only had it 6 months and i have one thats 2 year old but if its busted no problem as it was just music that was on it

[DJ Wozza]

Have you been using the 'Safely Remove Harware' tool to remove it ?

I was just yanking mine out till the same thing happened a few years back.

Had no problems since.......

[aido]

To be fair it does sound like it's buggered then mate - not good.

What brand is it as a matter of interest as I just bought a Sandisk 16GB the other day!

Only thing I can think is maybe try it in another computer?

I had an iPod Shuffle do the exact same sort of thing years ago when they first came out - apple wanted nearly 100 quid to fix it so I threw it in a drawer, kept trying various things as I thought of them, even restored to a Linux dd at one point but that never helped, six months later I found a utility on their website which brought it back to life - turned out it was a common problem and after months of charging to run this tool they decided to play nice and give it away for free!

May be worth checking the manufacturer website just in the every so tiny case you may be seeing something similar - but if it's just a USB stick odds are the memory is goosed.

Did you ever use it for Vista ReadyBoost as that would shoot up the amount of reading and writing done to it big time which would kill it off earlier?

[aido]

Have you been using the 'Safely Remove Harware' tool to remove it ?

I was just yanking mine out till the same thing happened a few years back.

Had no problems since.......

Hmmm maybe worth trying this at a command prompt then:

chkdsk e: /f

See what happens there!

[boddamloon]

Aido, it was just a cheap china product and cant see no name on it so not too bothered. i have another laptop on vista and tried it on there lastnight and did exact the same. I have only ever used it for playing music on my stereo so its not had much use. thanks for your ideas cheers mate

[aido]

Ah right ok, sorry can't help dude but looks like she's all set for the dustbin!

They only have so many read / cycles before they die, guess the cheaper ones don't have so many cycles, shame really, will be nice when someone finally finds a data storage format that will outlive us!

[boddamloon]

tried that last command and nothing happened cheers anyway bud

[Mike_B]

They have found a storage format that with outlive us - papyrus. No, I'm not joking. Nuclear waste dumps have warning signs made of papyrus in them amongst all the bits of waste - it's the longest lasting stuff apart from stone tablets, and pictures can be made pretty obvious. The thinking is that the warning signs will still be obviously warnings long after the English language has fallen into oblivion.

[aido]

They have found a storage format that with outlive us - papyrus. No, I'm not joking. Nuclear waste dumps have warning signs made of papyrus in them amongst all the bits of waste - it's the longest lasting stuff apart from stone tablets, and pictures can be made pretty obvious. The thinking is that the warning signs will still be obviously warnings long after the English language has fallen into oblivion.

That's awesome!

Guess the Egyptians knew more than they were letting on about :)

[Steve ( West Mids )]

Sometimes the stick will play up if you try to delete something and pull it out before it finishes ( ring any bells ;) ) ........ I'll await the comments ...........

[aido]

Sometimes the stick will play up if you try to delete something and pull it out before it finishes ( ring any bells ;) ) ........ I'll await the comments ...........

You do realise how hard it is for me not to say the obvious

There's actually a setting in Windows for HDDs - you can change the setting in Device Manager so you can just whip em out without having to worry about making a mess of the filesystem

Just open Computer Management, expand Device Manager, then Disk Drives, right click the USB HDD and select properties, then policies tab and select "Optimize for quick removal"

I've done that on all mine now just so I know I'm safer :)

[aido]

Actually I've just tried that on my new USB stick and it's defaulted to that option so maybe it's the default nowadays? Shows how much notice I take!

[boddamloon]

I also found that yesterday Aido but both optons were faded and i could not select neither but as i said it had been in HiFi for 3 days playing fine and then it corrupted or broke ??