USB drive... borked?

[fiskrond]

VII) Go into Disks, click on the drive, and tell Windows to format it to Fat32 or NTFS.
It's not there... :-/
This is what I don't understand... works fine in Puppy, used to work fine in Windows until few days ago when I used it to re-start my migration to Linux. Only presence now showing in Windows is in Device Manager.. but in the wrong category.. is showing under 'Disk Drives' whereas it should be under 'Portable Devices'.
It no longer shows anywhere else.. not in Explorer, not in Disk Manager.. nowhere!

Ok, you're telling me, if I understand correctly, that the USB works fine & dandy (whatever you do) in Puppy but that the moment you plug it in to Windows, it is non-functional and not recognized by Windows except that is shows in "Device Manager" only? And this would be true even if you HAD formatted the device to Fat 16/32 or NTFS while it was still in Gparted (which we didn't do for this test)??

Can I ask, if you do format it to Fat 16, try, then try FAt 32, try, then try NTFS (all done in Puppy), the USB in each case still only shows in "Device Manager" only? And for each format try, you left the device plugged into Windows and rebooted???

Also, in Device Manager, is a yellow exclamation beside the listed USB in each format attempt?

Whoop!
As you said.. we didn't format it in Gparted.. so, as advised above>
Formatted to FAT16 using Gparted
Insert USB to Windows PC
Still only showing in Device Manager
>Properties "No driver installed"
>Update driver
>"Best driver already installed"
>Properties "No driver installed"... ???wtf
>Properties > Uninstall device
>Scan for hardware changes. Yellow! flashed briefly in Portable Storage and disappeared.

USB stick now showing in all Windows places as expected & working fine!
(I had tried the Properties>Update>Uninstall method previously to no avail!)


That was some serious voodoo you pulled out of the bag there fella! Much kudos indeed!

Maybe a sticky.. I can't be the only person who has mangled a USB... then again.. lol

Advanced lesson in USB recovery!

THANK YOU doesn't quite cover it...

[fiskrond]

This may help you.
https://www.easeus.com/resource/usb-not ... 0-8-7.html

Thanks for the tip.. already tried that one and several others... none of them recognised the drive.. baffled

Sorted now though..

[fiskrond]

@belham2

Have you any insight into why the USB went awol?

Never had this happen before and am reasonably clued up on building/repairing PCs and using Windows..

The only other info that I can give is that at one point (very early on.. just after the FreeBSD episode) upon inserting the USB the PC would instantly BSOD with a 0x7 unrecognised hardware/driver error.
This stopped happening after a clean re-install of Win7, however, took USB to a more knowledgeable mate and it BSOD'd his PC immediately with same error... we did not pursue the matter any further!

[belham2]

@belham2

Have you any insight into why the USB went awol?

Never had this happen before and am reasonably clued up on building/repairing PCs and using Windows..

The only other info that I can give is that at one point (very early on.. just after the FreeBSD episode) upon inserting the USB the PC would instantly BSOD with a 0x7 unrecognised hardware/driver error.
This stopped happening after a clean re-install of Win7, however, took USB to a more knowledgeable mate and it BSOD'd his PC immediately with same error... we did not pursue the matter any further!

Hi fiskrond,

I'll feel better if the USB works and last for a few weeks.

But also know this is mainly (but not all) a Windows OS thing----Windows has always been notorious for up & deciding that a USB which previously worked, that was easily recognized, is suddenly a non-entity. The steps Widnows goes through to recognize and mount a USB are clumsy, and suffice it to say, actually quite sh!tty. A coding juvenile could have written better code for this than for what still exists even in Windows 10 today. But more important, I'm hoping that there isn't a problem---based on what you've been seeing---at the connection where the flash-circuit board connects to the USB connector (which gets plugged into your USB slot). That's what I am really worried about. But what confuses me is Linux/Puppies complete blithe nature in not seeing anything and it always working when you plugged it into a Puppy.

So before any thank you(s), use the USB regular and good, and if it still is cranking after a week or two, report back. Honestly, over the past 30 years, if I had a dollar for every time I fought with Windows (from 1 up through 95/98/XP) regarding thumbdrives and also hard drives, we could both enjoy a few cases of Germany's finest brews for free.

[fiskrond]

will do...

b(^_^)


*also thanks and respect to ALL who have contributed to this even if I haven't acknowledged your posts individually.. all advice was taken onboard..

[fiskrond]

@belham2

the USB drive in question has had a bit of a thrashing over the last few weeks..

delighted to say that it is working fine!

*Whatever that bit of code did (am not a programmer) certainly did the job!

Have seen comments on YouTube where people have experienced similar issues after attempting to install various Linux versions via USB... and similarly finding USB drive to be non-responsive as a result.

Maybe this thread could be thoroughly re-edited and your solution added as a 'Tech Tip'?

Many many thanks.. b(^_^)

*I don't know how to mark as resolved

[belham2]

@belham2

the USB drive in question has had a bit of a thrashing over the last few weeks..

delighted to say that it is working fine!

*Whatever that bit of code did (am not a programmer) certainly did the job!

Have seen comments on YouTube where people have experienced similar issues after attempting to install various Linux versions via USB... and similarly finding USB drive to be non-responsive as a result.

Maybe this thread could be thoroughly re-edited and your solution added as a 'Tech Tip'?

Many many thanks.. b(^_^)

*I don't know how to mark as resolved

Hi fiskrond,

Glad to hear! And keeping my fingers crossed

[greengeek]

*I don't know how to mark as resolved

All you need to do is to click "edit" on your first post and you should be able to change

Code: Select all

"USB drive... borked?"

to

Code: Select all

"USB drive... borked?  [SOLVED]"

(The title and subtitle are separate)

@Belham - can you explain what was the critical action here - my brain got tangled in the reading and I'm not clear what kicked Windows into reassessing the drive?