My First Flash Drive I Ever Bought Stopped Working On Windows

[easysurfer]

The very first flash drive I ever bought about some 25 or so years ago stopped working on Windows. Odd as it works fine in Linux. I've tried things like using the Win machine to read other flash drives and that works fine. Then I've use the non working one on Linux and that works fine.

I've even totally wiped out the data using a Linux program and reformatting but still the flash drive on my Win computer is a no go.

I've probably wasted too much time today already trying to get it to work.

I can either just pitch it or use only for Linux. But the latter might be more hassle than worth as I'm often moving small files on flash drive between operating systems.

The flash drive itself. When I bought, is 256MB (that's MB, not GB) in size and costed about $65 at Best Buy when purchased. That was then .

 

[Car-Guy]

I wouldn't bother... Trash can.


But, YMMV.

 

[Route246]

It is probably formatted as FAT and the interface is USB 2.0. What did you format it as on Linux?

 

[easysurfer]

It is probably formatted as FAT and the interface is USB 2.0. What did you format it as on Linux?

I formatted in FAT. Isn't FAT or eFAT the default for flashdrives?

I tried again. This time formatting to NTFS. Still no go.

Oh well.

 

[donheff]

Come on, trash.

 

[easysurfer]

I'm running a low level format with a Win program at the moment. Thought I already tried that in Linux. But what's there to lose beside time .

 

[euro]

I wouldn't bother... Trash can.


But, YMMV.

Agreed - you can get a new one with 10x-100x capacity for a penny plus $3.50 in shipping on Amazon. Or, perhaps they are included for free in some cereal boxes, like the little toy cars used to be

 

[easysurfer]

Agreed - you can get a new one with 10x-100x capacity for a penny plus $3.50 in shipping on Amazon. Or, perhaps they are included for free in some cereal boxes, like the little toy cars used to be

I'd rather have the little toy cars. Those things were great!

 

[easysurfer]

Low level formatting worked!

Gave my first flashdrive a new lease on life .

 

[Car-Guy]

^^^^^
Cool, with the size of files these days, now you can copy a few Excel files or Word documents to it.

Just joking, congratulations saving a piece of history.

 

[Jerry1]

Good to see it working. Amazing that it’s work so long. Keep it going.

 

[Al18]

If the drive is 25 years old, it’s likely USB 1 speed, which is 12 megabits per second. FYI the chips in a flash drive DO wear out. The warranty on the Sandisk Cruzer is 2 years. I would trash the drive, or you will loose data.

 

[NW-Bound]

It's not the money, but same as easysurfer, I would want to know why the doggone thing works on Linux and not Windows (before I threw it out).

The enquiring mind simply wants to know.

 

[Qs Laptop]

I'm glad to see you figured out how to get it operational again, however, will you trust storing anything on it now?

 

[NW-Bound]

The very first flash drive I ever bought about some 25 or so years ago stopped working on Windows...

When I bought, is 256MB (that's MB, not GB) in size and costed about $65 at Best Buy when purchased. That was then .

You are a big spender. I lost my first flash drive long ago. Don't remember when I bought it, what size it was, how much it cost, what it looked like.

But I doubt that it was 256MB. Maybe 16MB or 32MB.

Back then, anything that stored a few floppies worth was big. I was still using 100MB IOmega ZIP drive. Anyone remembers that? I still have it upstairs somewhere.

 

[easysurfer]

It's not the money, but same as easysurfer, I would want to know why the doggone thing works on Linux and not Windows (before I threw it out).

The enquiring mind simply wants to know.

I hear ya!

Unfortunately, looks like I celebrated too soon.

After a low level format, the thumbdrive seemed to work. I reformatted it, and even copied a file onto the drive.

Shortly after more poking around, now it's not recognized again. Trying to run the same low level formatting program again, the programs wants me to cough up money to buy the upgraded version which isn't going to happen .

Looks like the drive is back in the ICU.

 

[NW-Bound]

No ICU. The morgue.

I think the chip has worn out beyond repair. The error is intermittent, and as QS said, you can't trust it now.

PS. The low-level formatter may identify the bad spots and mark them as unusable. However, more and more sectors will turn bad. The drive is now just a souvenir.

 

[ERD50]

ooops, I crossposted with everything past #4 - hadn't noticed the updates.... oh, well, here is my 2 cents:

Clearly at this point, it is just an educational exercise (or should be!), a 25 YO flash drive is likely at end-of-life, and is easily/cheaply replaced.

But the official source for formatting these things is the SDA - you can download their 'sanctioned' formatters here:

https://www.sdcard.org/downloads/sd-memory-card-formatter-for-linux/

https://www.sdcard.org/downloads/formatter/

I recently have been working with SD cards on some Arduino supported micro-controllers (the NodeMCU specifically), and was told that I may need to use the official formatters, that the built in ones in Linux/Win/Mac and factory supplied formats may not be correct enough for these small libraries.

I also found (the hard way), that the Arduino library only supports SDHC cards, which are 32GB max. I had done my testing with an old 4GB SD Card, and that worked fine (even with factory format). But when I plugged in a 64GB card, it locked up.

You have to work a bit to even find 32GB cards, defaults come up that are larger, and the smaller ones actually can be more expensive, just no deals on them, or not much supply.
And 32GB is far, far more than I needed - all I wanted was to store a config file. Even storing a daily 'report' on my little project (monitoring my sump pump), a 4GB card would hold 2700 years worth of daily reports ( ~ 4KB each - one page of text). I couldn't find 4GB cards, probably not made anymore.

-ERD50

 

[Al18]

You should put the old drive in a shadow box and hang it on the wall - but don’t use it.

 

[Car-Guy]

Back then, anything that stored a few floppies worth was big. I was still using 100MB IOmega ZIP drive. Anyone remembers that? I still have it upstairs somewhere.

Yep, still have mine with maybe 20 disks. I "think" it would still work if I wanted to try it... It's at least 25+ years old, IIRC.

 

[ERD50]

....

PS. The low-level formatter may identify the bad spots and mark them as unusable. However, more and more sectors will turn bad. The drive is now just a souvenir.

Yes, as others mentioned, you can't trust it anyhow. And I bet the formatter is 'blacklisting' the bad sectors, and it's at the point that it has found so many bad ones, it gave up (maybe not enough storage for that long of a list?), or there just are no good sectors left.

I'm amazed it lasted 25 years, that's impressive. I'd bet the newer ones are not that good, as they cram more data in there, and use multi-level technology, they just aren't going to be as robust. It's always a good idea to copy important data from one device to another every few years, to 'refresh' the storage levels. Flash, spinning HD, whatever - they all eventually fail, but a fresh digital copy is like new again.

-ERD50

 

[jim584672]

256MB, LOL. Don't bother with it.

 

[NW-Bound]

... I couldn't find 4GB cards, probably not made anymore.

-ERD50

No. But I just bought one off eBay. New-unused, salvaged from obsolete outdated unsold electronic devices as the seller claimed.

I paid $4.31 after shipping. Expensive like heck, if you figure the price per GB. But if that's you need, you pay up.

 

[powerplay]

I have one of the Cruzer flashdrives, but have no idea where it is now. If I should find it I can expect it not to work and will likely discard it.

 

[NW-Bound]

Yep, still have mine with maybe 20 disks. I "think" it would still work if I wanted to try it... It's at least 25+ years old, IIRC.

Yeah, it probably will work if you use it on an old Win95 or NT machine.

I wonder if even Linux still has a driver for it.