Flash drive

[old farmer]

I was going to put pics and music from my computer on to a flash drive. I've never used one before.
When I plugged it in for the 1st time, a message "found new hardware" came up, and it installed it it and then said it was ready to use.
I went to copy a file to it and a message saying to insert a disk in to the drive came up.
My computer sees the flash drive as a disk drive.
My computer is a HP desktop bought in 2006 with Windows XP.
How do I make this work?
Thanks.

 

[Quattro Pete]

When you go to "My Computer", do you see this flash drive with its own drive letter, such as "E:" for example?

If so, just double click on it to open it. Once you have it open, just drag and drop files onto it.

 

[Scienceman]

Yep.

 

[dparm]

It might be a different letter like F: or even G:. If your computer has two CD/DVD drives or memory card readers, those will take D, E, F, etc. Try the "last" letter you see.

 

[old farmer]

I tried that, but it shows up as "removable disk (J)", and when I double click on it, I get a message saying "insert disk into drive J.
My computer thinks it's a disk drive.
How do I make it work?

 

[Scienceman]

It takes it awhile for the computer to figure it out. x out of everything...plug it back in..and try again.

 

[Ursae_Majoris]

Do not kill me, but are you SURE it is a flash drive?
I have a Secure Digital card reader that looks exactly like a thumb drive, but it is not. I have to insert a card in it.
http://www.amazon.com/Transcend-TS-RDS5W...4514&sr=8-4

 

[old farmer]

It's an 8gb usb memory stick.

 

[PandaBear]

Originally Posted By: old farmer
It's an 8gb usb memory stick.


USB is the port you plug into the computer, memory stick is a sony trademark (gee thanks) of its own interface. If you have a USB flash drive (or thumb drive as they call them), it shouldn't have this "please insert disk into drive J" error.

Are you sure J is the drive letter for your 8GB USB drive? Does it go away if you unplug J? XP on the lower right corner should have a logo with a green arrow called "Safely Remove Hardware" if you leave your mouse cursor there. If you click on it (single click), you should see the drive and its letter.

 

[warrior]

Make sure you have all the Windows xp updates.

 

[old farmer]

I have 3 usb 2.0 ports on the front of my machine.
One of them says drive J when I plug in the stick, the other 2 say drive F. They all say removable disk.
Where would I find an update for a flash drive, and how do I install it?

 

[Quattro Pete]

Maybe it needs to be formatted? Are you able to right-click on it and choose Format... ?

Just make sure you're not right-clicking on your system drive!!

 

[greenaccord02]

I would bring it back to the store and get another brand. Kingston, SanDisk, or something like that.

 

[PandaBear]

Normally, USB drives don't need driver if you use Windows 2000 or later.

Brand doesn't matter usually (unless it is defective or it has the awefull U3 software on it, but that's still going to work). Most drive comes formatted but it could have been corrupted or formatted to another operating system (Mac?). It'll also ask you if you want to format it if it isn't formatted.

I'd try it on another computer before return/exchange it. Most likely, my guess is something is up with your computer's windows installation. You can tell only by trying this drive in another machine.

Have you tried right click on the Drive J in My Computer and choose properties, and see what it said?

 

[PandaBear]

I just tried one out myself:

A card reader and a USB drive both have "Removable Disk" as the type, but a card reader will have 0 bytes capacity and a USB drive will have the file system type and capacity that's not 0.