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Whenever I plug a USB stick into my laptop, I am told the drive is 'not formatted'. I've tried this with three USB sticks (with data on them) on all available ports and it's the same.
I'm using Windows XP Service Pack 3. After a day of research I've concluded that the problem might be to do with SP3, and I was going to roll back to SP2, only to remember that I did a fresh install of XP with SP3 already included about a year ago. So I have nothing to roll back to!
I am faced with doing a complete reinstall of Windows only to access about 2.5GB worth of files on my USB, or finding a way to install SP2 over what I have now. Or maybe someone knows how to tackle this software issue directly (I am sure it is a software issue; I never recalled problems with the ports on this computer before, so all three dying at once seems a bit suspicious).
Any ideas?
1Have you tried the sticks on other system? (Both before and after trying them in this system.) Have you rebooted the system? Have you tried deleting and reinstalling the USB stick driver? Will anything work on those USB ports? – Daniel R Hicks – 2012-05-20T12:19:29.103
Yes, all other computers I've tried can access them. However I need them on this computer as they're music project files. I've tried rebooting too. As for other peripherals working, yes I've tried both a mouse and external keyboard and both work fine.
I haven't reinstalled the USB driver... How do I access it, and do you know where can I find a clean version to download? – Sputnik – 2012-05-20T14:01:32.750
Open Device Manager, open "Disk Drives", RMB on the memory stick, and click "Update Driver Software". – Daniel R Hicks – 2012-05-20T14:25:53.403