usb thumb drive reformatting?

[Codcommando]

I have my friends USB thumb drive. I used it to put some network settings on one computer,then returned it to him. Now he gave it back to me because whenever you try to look at the files on it, it sais "the disk is not formatted, do you want to format it now?" I click yes and then it comes up "the disk cannot be formatted". Any idea how to fix this? My friend is quite pissed. PLEASE HELP!

 

[Chris D]

Luckily, it doesn't seem to be anything in particular you've done wrong. Just uploading networking settings to it doesn't cause this to happen.

If anything, your friend should be pissed at himself, as you should never keep important files on these portable drives. They're supposed to be used for being portable, not for backing up important files. They're renowned for problems like this and are known to be quite volatile.

The only thing you can do is try and copy the files off the drive over to a hard drive. Sometimes they may copy across ok. If they do then format the drive and put the files back.

Also, delete any files left behind by the network setup wizard. Just in case.

 

[Codcommando]

Well he doesnt have anything important on it. Just a copy of UT and some old school stuff lol. But I cant even access the files on it to put them on a hard drive or delete anything.

 

[Chris D]

Only thing to do is to do a format then. If it still doesn't work after that he needs to buy a new one.

 

[Codcommando]

Thats the thing it wont format. But screw it, im just going to tell him to quit his whining and buy a new one if I cant fix it. Close thread :thumbs:

 

[Chris D]

Yeah, if it won't format then it's ****ed.