Formatting USB stick

Hi,

I have bought a new USB stick:

ScanDisk, Cruzer Micro Skin,USB 2.0 Flash Drive USB 8GB.

I am using an Acer computer with Vista and the latest updates of Vista.

I put the above USB stick into the computer. I copied a music file onto the USB stick. Then I played the music file from the USB stick on my computer ( from drive F .

Then only to test, if it does work because later I might need it, I formatted the USB stick with Windows Vista.

From then on the USB stick does not work any more.

The only things the USB stick does, is:

The USB stick does not show on Windows Vista, also not after a computer reset.

Only EACH TIME time when I do switch off the computer and then do start the computer again after one minute, the USB stick does show on the Windows Explorer in drive F:

The computer says that first the USB stick must be formatted, then asks for formatting the USB stick, but Windows says it cannot cannot finish the formatting and the USB stick is no longer shown in the Windows Explorer, though the light of the USB stick is on and flashes. 

Windows Vista says the driver is OK, and to put the USB stick out and in again and when it does now work then, the USB stick can no longer be used because it is defective.

I also wanted to use HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool, but the computer says I do not have the administrative rights though it is my computer only.

I also clicked on “Optimize for performance”, but it does not change things.

I have also bought a second USB stick of the same kind:

ScanDisk, Cruzer Micro Skin,USB 2.0 Flash Drive USB 8GB.

And it does work OK, but I have not formatted it and only copied and played the same music file of a 400 MB directory.

Does formatting the USB stick destroy the USB stick?

Many greetings,

Volker.

Hey,

How are you formatting the device in Vista? (Quick format or regular)?

Did you try to use the stick on a different PC and see if you can format it there. 

Is the LED constanly flashing in different patterns?

When you format on Vista you can format as quick format. THis is odd should not cause any issues to just format teh device. 

Did you format it in FAT32 or NTFS?

Let me know and i see if i find some things that can be tried to make the device function again.

Best Regards,

Hi,

Thank you for the answer!

I have tried to format both in quick format and regular, both many times.

I do not have another computer available.

The LED is flashing constantly and after some time is changing the speed of flashing ( quick and then slow).

I had tried to format in both FAT32 and NFTS, both many times.

I have found a SOLUTION, after trying many possibilities.

With Windows Explorer, it does not work.

I also used an alternative of the the Windows-Explorer. It is called FreeCommander. To my great surprise FreeCommander has formatted the USB-Stick without a problem.

After formatting with FreeCommander, I copied a directory of about 400 Mbytes of music on the USB-stick without a problem and then played some of the music files also without a problem.

In my opinion the problem lies in a bug of the Windows-Explorer, because I had looked into other forums on USB-sticks and I have found others with the same problem who had not found a solution to the problem.

Or there might be an incompatibilty problem, perhaps because Microsoft had changed the norm.

I am using a desktop computer. For desktop computers, an USB-stick is not so essential as for a notebook computer. So perphaps Microsoft may not have noticed it.

Many greetings,

Volker.

K great thanks for bringing it up.