[gwar2288]

Ok, here is my problem. Over the Past month I have had 3 USB sticks die on two different W7 machines.

What happens is everything is fine and dandy, then for some reason, with no warning, they crap out. When I plug it in, it is recognising it as a "Removable Drive" but when I try to access it it asks me to put a disk in it

At first I thought "Hmm, ok W7 is borked", but a fresh install proved fruitless, and the USB stick is not working in Ubuntu 9.1 either, nor is the bios detecting it as bootable option (where previously it did and I did have much fun installing t3h Ubuntus from it).

I have tried everything from Uninstalling the USB Hub Drivers to reinstalling W7 to installing XP and still no luck. There must be a way to "fix" it as I very much doubt three USB sticks would all fail the EXACT same way while using W7. I blame W7 as opposed to Linux (as I use both roughly equal) but one of the USB sticks was my mothers, who uses only Windows 7. These were not old USB sticks either, they are no more than 2 months bought

So, anyway, anyone got ideas as to how to fix it?

[beingblueeyes]

I am running windows 7 on 3 out of 6 machines and I use usb sticks to move things around and I haven’t hade any problems with them to this point. As to what’s making the sticks non fontanel I haven’t a clue, could one of the machines your testing the usb sticks in have a shorted usb port? Have you tried the sticks in different usb ports on your motherboard?

[gwar2288]

Originally Posted by beingblueeyes

I am running windows 7 on 3 out of 6 machines and I use usb sticks to move things around and I haven’t hade any problems with them to this point. As to what’s making the sticks non fontanel I haven’t a clue, could one of the machines your testing the usb sticks in have a shorted usb port? Have you tried the sticks in different usb ports on your motherboard?

Yup. I have tested them on all 10 Back Panel and 4 Front Panel Ports on my machine here. I do not think it is a shorted USB port, as one of them failed while being used on two different machines (my moms Desktop and Laptop).

[Diggrr]

Are you removing them without clicking the taskbar icon by the clock to remove them there first?, before physical removal?
That will eventually kill a stick, and I've seen it kill a wireless laptop mouse too.
I've no problem on my two with this machine.

[Sydney]

Originally Posted by Diggrr

Are you removing them without clicking the taskbar icon by the clock to remove them there first?, before physical removal?
That will eventually kill a stick, and I've seen it kill a wireless laptop mouse too.
I've no problem on my two with this machine.

Being able to "safely remove" is the exception not the rule. 9/10 times, no matter what I close down, it still says it's in use. I never understood why they did this, in XP if you removed the device via taskbar all the windows with it open would just close, instead of nagging you that there is something open.

[Diggrr]

I've always closed all the windows prior to removing, even in XP...how hard is that?

Truth be told, most times I just remove mine after the computer is shut down. Win 7 takes what, 10-15 seconds?

[Sydney]

Originally Posted by Diggrr

I've always closed all the windows prior to removing, even in XP...how hard is that?

Truth be told, most times I just remove mine after the computer is shut down. Win 7 takes what, 10-15 seconds?

Sometimes closing the windows just isn't enough, sometimes I have to kill everything under my user in task manager to safely remove a drive.