USB memory stick problem.

[ecb]

I have a Disgo 64 MB USB memory stick, it gave good service for a few years but now when I put plug it in to a computer, a "Removeable Disk (E)" icon is displayed in "My Computer" (as I would expect), but when I double click on the "Removeable Disk" icon, a message appears:

"Disk is not formatted
The disk in drive E is not formatted. Do you want to format it now?" (There is a "Yes" button and a "No" button).

I am not aware of having done anything to the USB memory stick to "unformat" it.

I have tried the memory stick on a number of different pcs (Windows 98, Windows 2000 and Windows XP pcs), and can't access the files. Although the loss of these files is no big problem to me, I am interested in case this happens on another memory stick in the future, which might have more important files on it. Is there anything I can do to access the files, so that I could copy them somewhere else?

Presumably if I click on the "Yes" button, all the files will be lost, but could use the memory stick for storing new files, but would it be a bit risky to trust it?

[Metalattakk]

Try looking Here (http://www.quickonlinetips.com/archives/2005/08/fix-format-usb-flash-drives/).

Pay special attention to the paragraph about using the 'Safely Remove Hardware' function.

[Mr_Me19]

There are utilities out there that can retrieve the information but they cost you. I am assuming that when you click no and then browse to the drive there are no files there?

[j4bberw0ck]

To be entirely honest, if your 64MB drive is a few years old, it doesn't owe you much. The memory these things use has a maximum number of read / write cycles and you may just have used 'em up, especially as the memory used in newer devices is much improved on the old.

Plus, the price has come down so much in recent months, it's almost not worth not replacing it - a 2GB drive is yours for a fiver or less at places like Amazon or www.mouse2house.co.uk (http://forum.caithness.org/go.php?url=http://forum.caithness.org/go.php?url=http://www.mouse2house.co.uk)(much more reasonable delivery charges).

For a few quid more you can get a U3 drive with passwording / encryption software and some basic applications, too. Stick to brand names like Sandisk and Corsair if quality is a big issue.

Hope this helps. I use a 4GB Sandisk U3 (good, but I wouldn't pay extra for the applications again) and two 4GB Pretec waterproof drives (http://forum.caithness.org/go.php?url=http://forum.caithness.org/go.php?url=http://www.jactron.co.uk/usb-flash-drives/pretec-idisk-bullet-usb-flash-drive-waterproof-shockproof-stainless-steel/pretec-idisk-bullet-usb-flash-drive-waterproof-shockproof/) for portable archives and storage of pictures, music, documents and things like Portable Firefox and a portable email client (http://forum.caithness.org/go.php?url=http://forum.caithness.org/go.php?url=http://www.pocosystems.com/home/index.php?option=com_content&task=category&sectionid=2&id=40&Itemid=71) which is superb. None of the portable applications transfer any files at all to the "host" pc, so things like digital banking via the Portable browser is safe to do on a public machine which could have keyloggers and any amount of malware on it.