Hi guys....good news the Humax sees my memory stick....bad news..... the on-screen message is that it's not formatted correctly and that it should be ext3 or FAT 16/32

Now, I have reformatted it on my pc and have tried all formatting options offered including FAT 32 and re-loaded some mp3 tracks and the same non-recognition message appears.

The help line hasn't responded as it said it would with extra instructions (OK it's holiday time) but I get the impression other people have had this problem and have found a way around it.

Any help please guys will be gratefully received (I'm a moderately competent pc user - I have the ECDL and a new windows 7 pc system)

Thanks

hi Jeanniepurple your not having much luck with your usb connection, what brand of usb stick are you using?

Oops have now lost the blessed thing...I think it's a bog standard one I got from Maplins some time ago. I'll keep looking (I put it out of sight to stop obsessing with it)

Eureka...letters on stick PQI 128mb - rather a natty shade of blue

It's a chip set thing. The hdr does not like some of the chip sets used in some usb sticks. I have two types that workk fine Danelec 8gB and EmaxUSB also 8Gb. A 256Gb usb powered medion HDD also works fine.

Thanks Graham, it's good to know if I'm flogging a dead horse, I'll look out for the sticks you suggest.

There's a few more suggestions on this thread too
http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/forums/s....php?t=1098875

edit: also I may add that along with a couple of sandisk cruzers which work either FAT32 or EXT3 I also have had success with PNY's and Buffalo brands formatted to FAT32

Hi GaseousClay,

Many thanks for the suggestions I'll follow them up. Shame the manual/Humax website/Humax helpline aren't clearer about this (and other issues) It would have made my learning curve less steep and my Christmas less stressful than it need have been.

The Medion 8gig USB sticks from Aldi also work in the Humax.

Help guys....I'm getting seriously discouraged now I have bought an Integral 4gb USB 2.0 flash drive (as listed as being OK in a thread) which is fat 32 formatted, loaded some MP3 tracks and still the Humax doesn't recognise it.

It's the same message - can't read the device... format it in ext 32 or FAT 16/32. Am I missing something really simple here?

No word from the Humax helpline yet. Aaargh

I have the same problem with my 8gb Tevion stick bought from Aldi. I formated it to Fat32 under Windows 7 but the Humax just tells me to format it to EXT3 or Fat32.

How annoying and expensive is all this. Think I'll send the bill to Humax

However I AM grateful to know it's not just me who's having this difficulty.

I'm hopeful that someone will have the answer - not least the Humax 'help' line whom I've e-mailed again as they still haven't responded as they said they would initially.

I do like the Humax but it's been badly let down by poor manuals and customer service.

I got the 8gb Medion stick from Aldi and formated it to Fat32 under Vista and it works OK. Obviously I can't use it for files over 4gig.

Is it worth seeing if a full format under something other than Win7 makes a difference?

Good news:

Earlier I reported that my 8gb Tevion stick would not work with the Humax. Since then I tried to format it to EXT3 under Ubuntu but it kept throwing up errors, so I deleted the partition and tried again but it still would not format. When I booted back into Windows 7 and put the Tevion in a USB slot, Windows 7 said it needed to be formated before I could use it, so I again formated it to Fat32 and now it works fine with the Humax.

I would suggest that anyone who has a stick that wont work with the Humax try to delete the partition then format it again to Fat32, you never know this may work for you too.

As a thought I think most sticks are formated to Fat32 from new. I had formated mine to NTFS as a while ago I wanted to transfer a file larger then 4gb to another PC. I then formated it back to Fat32 when I tried it in the Humax. Maybe the Humax for some silly reason does not like it if a stick has previously been formated to NTFS.