I have been using a PNY Mini-Attache drive, 512mb, on my work computer for some time now, to take files home to work on, and to use the portable apps on it.
Today I inserted it, it beeped, but I did not get the dialog box that asks me what I want to do, and the drive doesn't show up in Windows Explorer.
It is displayed in Device Manager ("USB mass storage device"), and Properties there says that "the device is working properly" When I do the safe removal thing it is there for me to stop and remove. Also, I tried it in a co-worker's machine and it worked there as it had been in mine, so I'm stumped as to why my computer, a Dell Latitude D620 (same as my co-worker's) only 'kind of' sees it.
The drive is not dead, clearly,but what is happening here? Any ideas?
Visit the Community page
Join our forums
Subscribe to our email newsletter
Subscribe with RSS
Follow us on Facebook
Follow us on LinkedIn
Follow us on Twitter
Follow us on Mastodon
Follow us on BlueSky
Had the same problem.
It is because of the drive letter. Your PC assigns a new drive letter to your drive on insert. But if you have shared/network folders showing up in "my computer" with drive letters, your PC doesnt mark these letters as "dont use for new drives cause already in use".
So simply change your usb's drive letter and you should be ok.
"There is a computer disease that anybody who works with computers knows about. It's a very serious disease and it interferes completely with the work. The trouble with computers is that you 'play' with them!" - Richard Feynman
"What about Love?" - "Overrated. Biochemically no different than eating large quantities of chocolate." - Al Pacino in The Devils Advocate
How would I change the drive letter on a flash drive? I thought Windows assigned it.
I'm using a different drive in the same machine, a Sandisk, right now. My other drive always worked here at work, It's just the PNY that doesn't become visible, although it's clearly there, because the removal function shows it and it beeps when inserted, and it works on other machines.
There are 7 shared drives. Today after I booted into Windows, I inserted the thumb drive, which became E. (D is my DVD optical drive) then my shared drives follow: F,H,I,R,S,T,and Z.
Why won't my PNY drive become E as does the Sandisk?
Doug George
Are you running Windows 2000, XP, or Vista? If you are, you can change the drive letter by right-clicking My Computer (just Computer in Vista), clicking Manage, then going to the section "Disk Management." I do it all the time.
-
maggie n. The fattest thing known to man. A gigantic woman whose name is rendered invariably in lowercase; eats everything that isn't nailed down and even some things that are.
I right clicked My Computer(I have XP Pro) and there is no "disk management" but "computer management", with an Explorer type interface.
In the left pane there is System Tools, Storage, and Services and Applications.
Under 'Storage' I find 'Removable Storage', and within that is 'Media' and 'Libraries'.
Left clicking 'Media' shows me, in the right pane, both of the flash drives that I have plugged in, my Sandisk, which is E in Explorer, and the PNY, which is not seen in Explorer.Neither is identified by drive letter, just Name('1' and '2'), type,(Removable media), Library(this is where they are named, one being Sandisk U3 Kruser Micro, and the other the generic "USB Flash Memory USB Device"(which is how the PNY is described in other places, such as the Removal function)
Right-clicking on the PNY drive gives me the choice of "Eject' 'Free','All tasks'(expands 'eject' and 'free'),'Cut', 'Properties", and 'Help'
There I am stuck. How do I assign a drive letter to my PNY drive? I guess that 'G' would work, since it's not being used... (I have the hard drive, 'C', optical is 'D', the Sandisk is 'E', then my shared drives, 'F','H','I','R','S','T',AND 'Z'.)
Thanks for all this...
Doug George
Are you running as an administrator? I'm pretty sure you have to be to change drive letters.
When I open Computer Management, (rightclick My Computer -> Manage), I see three items under the Storage heading: Removable Storage, Disk Defragmenter, and Disk Management. Disk Management is the one you want, but as I said, you have to have admin privileges.
Once you're in Disk Management (it takes a bit to load), you may have to go through some trial-and-error to find your USB drive. There are two panes; you'll be using the bottom pane, since the top pane only shows drives with valid drive letters. You can normally figure out which drive is yours by looking at the size of the disk (it'll be listed as "Removable" by the way). For example, my 2GB Micro Vault shows up as "1.89 GB FAT32" and my 80GB iPod as "74.40 GB FAT32." Once you find it, rightclick it and hit "Change Drive Letter and Paths." You should be able to figure it out from there.
-
maggie n. The fattest thing known to man. A gigantic woman whose name is rendered invariably in lowercase; eats everything that isn't nailed down and even some things that are.
This is a factor. I am not running as an administrator, and clicking disk management gives me a message that I don't have rights to this.
But, why did this drive show up for the past two months and now it doesn't, and why does my Sandisk work properly, and why does the PNY work on my co-worker's computer like it always had on mine? Something has changed...
This may just remain a mystery, I guess... and I just have to use a drive other than the PNY. Unless I can figure out what is now different about the PNY and how it is treated by Windows.
Sorry about having missed seeing Disk Management the first time.
Doug George