# Solved: Unable to format RAW USB Flash Drive...?



## Obinice (Sep 7, 2004)

My apologies on making another thread, but it is on a totally different topic. I just bought a Digital photo frame keyring for my mother's birthday, which can be seen *here*.

I hooked it up to the PC, installed the software (which does nothing but change images into the correct BMP format and resolution, it expects you to copy them to the keyring yourself), and found that I could not access the drive. I looked at its properties, and then I tried to format it (see below images):










(Note, I did add a Volume Label):









After that I tried to use Disk Management to format it:


















I also ran Norton Partition Magic, but the drive didn't show up (and I wasn't sure how to make it), so I couldn't use it.

So, could the thing be broken? Or is there something else I need to do that I don't know about?  Thanks!


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## Pentium_III_guy (May 27, 2008)

Since Windows is not able to properly format the drive, I suspect the drive itself is at fault. Flash drives are notoriously unreliable, imo. I have had two of them fail, or in the process of failing, since last Fall. The first one was a SanDisk Cruzer Micro 4GB which completely failed on me (with two hdds worth of data on it). The other is a Kingston Data Traveller, also 4GB, and it's starting to make Windows XP think it's formatted in FAT (it's not) and that only parent directories exist on it.(There *should* be subdirectories showing up as well, as there were before.)
My advice would be to take advantage of the warranty and try to convince the maker (or retailer, if it's under the store's refund period) that you want a refund, not a product replacement. And only go with the better brands. Even then, there's no peace of mind using those things, imo. Thumb drives offer only temporary data storage, and I'd measure that time in months, or even weeks, before risking file loss.


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## arknorth (Oct 17, 2007)

Question - is this a flash drive, or is it a key-bob picture viewer with flash memory? If it is, was the unit powered up when plugged into the computer? This is the type of device that needs to be 'on' when plugged in, or the computer will treat it like a camera that's powered off - it won't see it. It might not have an auto-on system in it (saves power that way).

Also, I can't tell you how many times I've had to tell my customers to pull the little plastic tang that keeps the battery from running down while its being shipped.

A-N


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## Obinice (Sep 7, 2004)

It's a keyring picture viewer with flash memory, the unit was powered up (and can be powered via USB anyway), was set ready to update via USB, and I pulled the little plastic tab out 

I think I'll get a replacement, won't be too difficult and I guess the little thing isn't worth head scratching over, especially if it's just bust. 

Thanks chaps =)


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## matthew0155 (Jan 14, 2008)

ya, does look defected..


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