Outpost Universe Forums

Off Topic => Computers & Programming General => Topic started by: CK9 on June 22, 2010, 02:47:52 AM

Title: Flashdrive Error
Post by: CK9 on June 22, 2010, 02:47:52 AM
Okay, I'm tired of crawling through google results that don't help, so maybe one of our electrical or computer engineers an help me trace the root of the problem:

I have a little P.O.S. flash drive that was given to me when they were still fairly new to the process of mass production.  It worked for a week, then the seal on the case broke and it hasn't worked right since.  The seal only served to keep the circuit board protected, not air tight.

So, I plug in the drive and it seems to load up fine.  The second I try to modify the data on it, the LED starts up (as expected) and the computer suddenly loses communication for a moment.  This is just enough to end any process being run on it.  If I just let it sit there, it's connected without issue.  I tried to reformat it, but it lost connection before it could finish.  This happens in quick format and non-quick.

This problem has occured on EVERY computer I have plugged the drive into.  Windows 98SE, XP, and Vista.  I have yet to try it on 7, but I'm convinced the results will be the same.

There is no visible damage to the USB port or the circuit board.
Title: Flashdrive Error
Post by: CK9 on June 22, 2010, 11:58:33 AM
okay, that was odd..."borrowed" my mom's laptop (running on 7) and it fully formatted the drive.  It works completely now.
Title: Flashdrive Error
Post by: Simpsonboy77 on June 23, 2010, 09:24:39 PM
I going to hazard a guess and say that there might have been a bad cluster which didn't let the formatting happen, and the wearleveling of the drive might not have noticed. Windows 7 can control wear leveling on it own, independent of the hardware.

Look up TRIM (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TRIM).
Title: Flashdrive Error
Post by: CK9 on June 23, 2010, 11:39:03 PM
That's interesting to know, so there is a lot more difference between Vista and 7 than there appears to be, lol
Title: Flashdrive Error
Post by: Freeza-CII on June 24, 2010, 10:34:06 AM
could of smashed it with a hammer and got a new one or just got a new one hehe
Title: Flashdrive Error
Post by: CK9 on June 25, 2010, 12:45:12 AM
lol, I have a better one, but I was thinking of turning this one into a USB key of sorts...after I figgure out how