Flash Drive Problem

stairway · 30/05/14 - 23:19

I have a flash drive which windows can't format.
When i click properties on it it comes up zero used and zero free space, yet it is a 250gb drive. Any advice please? Operating system is Windows XP

LION8TIGER · 31/05/14 - 00:56

A 250GB flash drive would not be inexpensive, if you got it cheap then maybe its a dud.

evil c · 31/05/14 - 01:33

What is make and model of flash drive? How much did you pay for it and where did you buy it? If online give us the link.

oilman · 31/05/14 - 10:15

Do you really mean 250Gigabytes not 250Megabytes?

flagpole · 31/05/14 - 10:20

if you paid less than a £100 for it is is fake.

like this £13 one
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Leather-Memory-Flash-Drive-brown/dp/B00FY8SVS6/ref=sr_1_1?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1401527979&sr=1-1&keywords=256gb+usb

stairway · 31/05/14 - 14:28

evil c wrote: »

What is make and model of flash drive? How much did you pay for it and where did you buy it? If online give us the link.[/QUOTI

I have a desktop pc running Windows 7 Professional, when i tried it on that it worked perfectly, I added music which it played just fine.
Now I've added back to the laptop running XP, the same thing happens, says it needs formatting. I'm beginning to think i need a fresh re-install of XP.

mac2708 · 31/05/14 - 17:46

evil c wrote: »

What is make and model of flash drive? How much did you pay for it and where did you buy it? If online give us the link.

stairway wrote: »

I have a desktop pc running Windows 7 Professional, when i tried it on that it worked perfectly, I added music which it played just fine.
Now I've added back to the laptop running XP, the same thing happens, says it needs formatting. I'm beginning to think i need a fresh re-install of XP.

That doesn't answer the question asked/quoted but have a look here
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_xp-hardware/xp-recognizes-but-does-not-give-access-to-usb/b7b0ffd4-bc7a-4e91-9998-11ff854c249f?auth=1
and
http://www.teachexcel.com/winxp/winxp-help.php?i=10961

Mr Dos · 31/05/14 - 18:13

If it is a pen drive, it's probably formatted as exFAT, which the old XP may not be able to read without a driver. I'm guessing it's an external HD - You can get a cheap laptop for less than the cost of a (genuine) 256GB pen drive.

When 32GB flash drives first came out, I got one cheap off fleabay. Was actually a hacked 2GB drive that would overwrite data once you exceeded 2GB. I complained to the Chinese seller, and amazingly got a PayPal refund.

Zenith · 01/06/14 - 12:51

A good program for testing USB memory sticks is h2testw.

It will show if you have a fake.

evil c · 01/06/14 - 14:12

OP, why won't you tell us the make and model?

Mr Dos · 01/06/14 - 15:01

stairway wrote: »

I have a flash drive ... yet it is a 250gb drive

Just occurred to me - HDDs are usually whole numbers eg 500GB etc, whereas flash drives seem to go in multiples of 2 eg 16GB, 32GB, 256GB etc. Unless the '250' was a typo, my money's on this being a external HDD, although that doesn't solve the OP's problemo.

Maxatoria · 01/06/14 - 15:25

Mr Dos wrote: »

Just occurred to me - HDDs are usually whole numbers eg 500GB etc, whereas flash drives seem to go in multiples of 2 eg 16GB, 32GB, 256GB etc. Unless the '250' was a typo, my money's on this being a external HDD, although that doesn't solve the OP's problemo.

both are based on the same idea just you have the techies using 2^10 and the sales droids just using 1000 and those small 24's soon add up when used in modern sizes

Hey there!

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