Computer won't read my flash drive.

[spooferfish]

I recently dumped everything off my computer and started over from scratch to try to stop my computer from randomly freezing and/or restarting. After doing so, it will not recognize my flash drive as a flash drive. It says its a smartcard reader. I tried my dad's flash drive in it and it reads that fine, but it will not read mine, which is where my resume, among other important things, is.

 

Also speaking of randomly freezing and/or resetting..any one have any ideas on that? :P

[Laura]

Flash drives have short lifespans with a maximum read/write count. Have you plugged in this flash drive into another computer to make sure that it works?

[Sbrideau]

Yes Spooferfish did. (btw, I love that username lol).

 

As for the random freezing and restarting, looks to me like overheating symptoms, have a look inside your case to see if there is a lot of dust, and if it's the case, the best way is to use a can of air to clear the dust. I don't know why it would be restarting instead of complete shutdown, which could mean something else, like a malfunctionning part.

[spooferfish]

I will try my brothers computer when he gets home. I hope I can at least get the stuff off it...

 

My uncle things it might be overheating and a mix of the guy that replaced my screen putting in my wireless ..something (not too computer savvy :P) in the wrong port or something...

 

Thanks guys!

[Laura]

Yes Spooferfish did. (btw, I love that username lol).

It would be highly coincidental, but it could have failed after reinstallation and in this case a hardware problem is the easiest to rule out. Although, "starting over from scratch" is a bit loose. Did you reformat and/or reinstall Windows, Spoofer? Or just wipe a bunch of files?

 

If your Windows XP computer is not recognizing your flash drive, its likely that you computer simply is confused as to what drive letter to assign to the memory stick. Fortunately, the fix is a simple one. This trick also works when your computer refuses to recognize a USB drive or other removable storage device.

 

First, hit Windows+E to open an Explorer window.

 

Select My Computer.

 

Right click and choose Manage from the contextual menu. This will open a window called Computer Management.

 

Select Disk Management, which is under Storage

 

On the bottom right side of the window, youll see a list of all of the storage devices currently attached to the computer. If your flash drive is listed there, thats greatyou can fix the problem. If not, this solution wont work.

 

Right click on the drive listed in that window. This will bring up a contextual menu. Choose Change Drive Letter and Paths.

 

This will bring up yet another window, which will show your missing drive. Choose Change at the bottom.

 

Another window will pop up. This one will have a drop down menu on the right hand side. Choose a letter higher than the one currently assigned to the drive. If its E, for example, choose a letter between F and Z. Its probably best to pick one toward the end of the alphabet.

 

Once youve selected a drive letter, a warning message will come up saying that Changing The Drive Letter of a Volume Might Cause Programs No Longer To run.

 

Thats OK. Its likely that all youve got on the drive is data. Click on Yes.

 

That will return you to the Computer Management Window.

 

Your drive now should function properly.

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[spooferfish]

I reformatted and reinstalled windows.