Computer makes sound when flash drive is connected, can't be accessed?

[Racr]

Oookay... So, this is weird. I have a one gig Sandisk thumb drive, and when I plug it into my computer, it makes the sound of something being connected, but I can't get on the flash drive itself. I'm running Windows XP on a Dell Dimension E510, if it helps.

[Ben-BSH]

firstly, have you tested it in anyone else's machine?

Secondly? is it being recognised in device manager? (run command then : compmgmt.msc)
see if you have any yellow question marks anywhere, if so, it could be your device is faulty / windows does not recognise it and therefore is having a paddy a faulty item/items would appear like this, if this is the case, repost, and we will look at getting that worked out.




Thirdly ..

Open your run command, and enter the following : diskmgmt.msc
Look to see if your drive is listed there, and if so, it may need to be assigned a drive letter to become usable, right click the drive which is your thumb drive, and then choose "change drive letter and paths" and assign it a letter not already in use, this could be anything, probably something like H will be free, dependant on your partitions / mapped drives etc. and it should now work

[MrMxyzptlk]

Also, if you (or anyone else) tried to "format" the drive you shouldn't have.

They come pre-formatted (in FAT16 or FAT32 format, usu, FYI.)

If it was formatted, that could be the reason too....

[Racr]

Alright, well, now, it's for some reason working. I'm not sure what I did whilst following your steps, but something I did must have worked.


Mxy: Nobody else uses this thumb drive but me and I know better than to format something unless told to do so by the manufacturer.


Thanks for your help guys. I'll let ya know if it happens again.