h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Today I had the pleasure of, while rooting around in my study at home, finding a 1GB memory stick. "Oh!" I think "That'll come in very handy!"

So, I put it into the PC to check whats on it already and the little bubble comes up telling me its all ready to use, go to my computer and see it listed there as "Removable Disk"

Click on it, and get the titled message.

Can anyone tell me why? Or how to make it work?

It sounds like it will require a format.

Assuming you're using a Windows OS:

Right click on the My Computer icon on your desktop

Click on "Manage"

Select "Disk Management", it should be under "Storage"

In the lower pane on the right hand side you should be able to see the physical and logical disks on your PC, including the USB stick you've put in there.

Let me know what it says in the box that says "DiskX" (where X is the disk number). The box next to that one, which shows the size of the disk, should have a coloured border - what colour is it?

Perhaps it takes one of those little chip cards. Mine does. Although you'd know if it did.

I dont know of any chip cards. Although, I did find it in a drawer not knowing I had it.

Assuming I'm doing this right, it says Disk one removable

and it also says, unreadable. And theres just Grey to the right

Doesn't seem good?

You've not got any card readers and/or other removable media storage (zip drives) attached to the computer by any chance have you? I only ask as they could be showing up as that removable drive and the flash drive as a result for some reason could be trying to map to an already in use drive letter. The only way to change that is to do the disk management thingy mentioned above to change the usb dongle's drive letter.

I dont /think/ so.....

So what is the brand/model of the usb stick, and does it show up in the Storage -> Disk Management list when you insert it, then right click on my computer and choose Manage?

Brand= "That kind you find in a drawer and wonder where it came from, which doesn't have a brand name on it" its black, and has a silver bit covering the end that spins round out of the way so you can plug it in.

When I plug it in it comes up with all the usual "Found new device" messages etc, it shows up on my computer as "removable disk" and under Disk Management it comes up as unreadable.

*considers this could be more trouble than its worth*

When you right click on it in disk management does it give you the option to format it?

Nope.

What does it show up as in the device manager under either the Disk Drives or USB devices section?

I have since seen this message.

It appeared when a USB stick was inserted into a USB-Socket at the front of a new PC.

I had designed a poster in power point on my husband's computer and moved it to a USB stick to take to the copy shop to have it printed in colour. My husband's computer is a few years old and the USB connection is at the back, under all the fluff. The copy shop had a spanking new machine with the USB socket in the front. When the man in the shop inserted the stick to find the file to be printed, we got exactly that message - "please insert a disk into drive H:". After that the explorer on his computer wouldn't display any exterior drive at all.

I took the stick to the office, where I could also print out in colour, but hadn't really wanted to as it was private business and I didn't like the idea of doing it on the office printer. A colleague was working that morning so the office was open.

On my computer at work - a new one with the socket for USB at the front - I got absolutely no reaction at all (I don't think I even got the "Drive H:" message). On my colleague's PC - she also has an older one with the socket at the back - it was no problem. Printed out in a minute.

The conclusion being: The new PC's have the casing over the front which prevents the USB-Stick going into the socket all the way. If your USB gadget is connected by a cable, this may not be a problem. However, if the stick has the plug inegrated directly in it, when you first push it in, the connection is made, but when you let it go, the casing pulls the bulgy bit of the stick away a bit. There is no casing over the back of a PC and the USB stick can get right in and make the connection and stays there.

So either : try it out on a PC with the socket at the back or get an extension cable with USB-in at one end and USB-out at the other.

Well, that's my layman's explanation. Backed up by a Saturday morning wasted driving around town and trying the thing out on four different computers.

Traveller in Time still not a single USB storage device
"That is an excellent trail and error - fault finding procedure !
And ending up with a potentially valid conclusion.


I only have some mice and many cameras on USB, and my (non WINDOWS XP) conclusion is the difference in front and back only is the enumeration of the bus. Apparently the systems with front and rear USB have more busses the one with only a rear connector. These same busses you will see if you use external USB hubs.
I have noticed some confusion in the systems when a stick was used on bus 2 instead of on bus 1, where it was used previous. Apparently the system stores the location where a device has been used last. "