Flash fault

Q.

I have had two problems with my Kingston USB flash drives:

1) The drive doesn't open and a message informs me that it needs to be formatted. When I try to format the drive, \ returns a message that says it "cannot I formatted". Is there a specific method for I formatting or do flash drives become un-1 format-able sometimes?

2) The "My documents" folder opens up instead of the contents of the drive every time I click on it in Explorer to view its contents (different drive from the first one). I can still send files to the drive, though.

A.

As a first step, check that the flash drives consistently return the same error messages on other computers. If so, then there may well be a problem with the flash drives. If the problems persist only on that one PC, then you may have another problem on your hands. Before writing off the flash drive as no good, try formatting flash drive 1 with a different file system. For example, if you're currently using the FAT file system, try formatting it using FAT32 and see if that makes a difference. Most USB flash drives are preformatted with either file systems, but may be formatted to any other file system since Windows allows it. If you're trying the "quick format" option, uncheck that to perform a full format, which will also check the L flash drive for bad sectors. To do so, click 'Run' in the Start menu and enter 'diskmgmt.msc' (without the quotes) to open the Disk Management service console. In the console, locate your flash drive, right-click it and click 'Format'. Ignore the warning that appears and change the file system from the drop-down box. If the error persists, it could also suggest a disabled UPnP registry key in the Windows PC you're using. Open the Run dialog box as previously instructed and enter 'regedit' (caution: this step involves modifying Windows registry values). In the Registry Editor, navigate to 'HKEY LOCAL MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\UsbStor'. In the details pane here, double click 'Start'. If the value in the data box is '4', change it to '3' ensure 'Hexadecimal') and Click 'OK'. Close the Registry Editor, restart your system, and attempt to access your flash drive again. If the flash drive still doesn't work and is under warranty, you may be able to get a replacement from the manufacturer. As for flash drive 2, it is not unlikely that the flash drive or the PC is infected with a virus. Oo try and have both scanned for the possibility. In any case, to view the contents of this flash drive (assuming you have Windows XP), open an Explorer window and press the Ctrl+E keys or click on View>Explorer Bar>Search in the menu bar. In the search pane on the left, click on 'All files and folders' and enter a single '*' (asterisk) in the first text box. Leave the next empty and select your flash drive in the 'Look in:' drop-down box. When you click on the 'Search' button, you should see the contents of your thumb drive.