USB flash drive not working

[Richard in AZ]

Working on a "custom built" PC with Windows XP Pro SP2.
When you plug a known good working USB flash drive (works in other PCs) into any of the USB ports,
the computer may or may not recognize the drive and assign a drive letter. However, it never show
up in the "Computer Management - disk management" window. And if it does get a letter assigned in
"My Computer" the properties are always "zero capacity - zero unused space". The printer, the mouse
and the keyboard all work in the same USB ports. (4 on the back and two on the front of the
chassis). We tried them all.
The owner has had the PC for about a year, but had never tried a USB flash drive before so does not
know if they ever worked.
We tried removing the USB devices from the device manager and letting the PC find them again, but
that did not help.

Have not tried a Windows Repair Installation because the owner is still looking for the disk that
came with the computer and he has not backed up recent documents. He does have this computer cable
connected to a wireless router and is able to back up files to a laptop through his home network.

Any thoughts?

 

[Guest]

I would try running SFC /SCANNOW first. This seems to be some flaw in the
expected behavior of Explorer. You will definately need that disk.