Cannot access memory stick

[heavyfeather]

Hi
2 days ago everything worked fine, but yesterday I put the computer on and the memory stick did not show up in my computer. The first thing I did was to go to the disk management and make sure a drive letter was assigned. I found out that no drive letter was assigned so I assigned one. After that I found out that it still didnt show up in my computer. The only way I can access it and even then its only sometimes is by going to disk manager and clicking explore. Even then I get messages that the disk does not support file names over 8 characters long when it obviously does because there are already file names over that length stored on there. Just as a side note it works absolutely fine in safe mode. I am running Windows XP pro.
Thanks in advance

 

[heavyfeather]

I forgot to mention, I have tried repair install and in place upgrade of xp and still the problem remains

 

[smah]

Does this memory stick behave properly on a different machine?

 

[heavyfeather]

Sorry forgot that too. Memory stick works fine on my laptop and every other computer I tried so its definately related to this computer.

 

[wolluf]

Have you run chkdsk on the memory stick (on a computer it works on?)

Have you tried another memory stick in 'bad' machine? (I've seen USB devices that were working suddenly stop on a particular machine - ok on others - and then some days later, work again ok. Haven't yet figured out why!)

 

[Frank4d]

Can you access the drive from a Command Prompt or from Disk Management? There is a problem in Windows XP where if you have any drives mapped that are the next letter after hard drives and CDROM/DVD-ROM drives, this error can occur.

 

[heavyfeather]

I tried chkdsk but still the problem remains. I can access it from cmd with the dir command by typing "dir e:\". The only way in explorer i can get access is to go to disk management and right click and clisk open and even then it only SOMETIMES works. Other times it says the folder does not exist whilst other times it flashes up then returns back to my computer. When i get access in this way, i can not store files more than 8 characters long. (works fine in safe mode)

 

[heavyfeather]

Anyone?

 

[smah]

I would try removing all unused/past usb devices including the memory stick. Then let Windows find it new again. Use this procedure to find all the hidden usb devices:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315539/en-us

 

[heavyfeather]

The proceedure mentioned above unfortunately did not work. Any more suggestions?

 

[alidabiri]

bad socket. try to blow compressed air into the seat of the memory stick.

 

[vitrader]

Please check for a bios update on the said machine.

Al Odlum
vicomm2@netscape.net

For Networking..............see me

 

[teckystuff]

On some memory sticks there is a little light (LED) if yours has one confirm the light is always on when it should be i.e that it is getting power from your computer.
Do you have any other USB devices on this computer - do they work fine?
Have you tried plugging it into more than one USB connector on this computer