Author Topic: Flashdrive Error  (Read 2493 times)

Offline CK9

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Flashdrive Error
« 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.
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Offline CK9

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Flashdrive Error
« Reply #1 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.
« Last Edit: June 22, 2010, 11:59:00 AM by CK9 »
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Offline Simpsonboy77

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Flashdrive Error
« Reply #2 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.
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Offline CK9

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Flashdrive Error
« Reply #3 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
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Offline Freeza-CII

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Flashdrive Error
« Reply #4 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

Offline CK9

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Flashdrive Error
« Reply #5 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
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Iamck in runescape (yes, I still play...sometimes...)
srentiln in minecraft (I like legos, and I like computer games...it was only a matter of time...) and youtube...
xdarkinsidex on deviantart

yup, I have too many screen names