usb flash drive strange

[HarryHorse]

Hello.
I've been using a USB 1.1 Flash Drive (64mb) with various windows xp
computers since January and have not had any problems.
However today, when I inserted the drive into a USB socket on the main
computer I've been using it with I received a popup saying 'new hardware
detected'. Windows then started installing drivers for it.
When I looked for it in My Computer/Windows Explorer I found THREE new
drives instead of one and none of them work. When I try and open each one it
says 'insert a disc'. I cant format them as the computer thinks that no disk
is inserted.
The USB Mass Storage device appears in the Device Manager with no problems.

The Flash Drive has been working fine on this computer. I've not installed
anything new since I last used it. It shouldn't have recognized it as new
hardware because it has been installed for nearly a year and is not new.
I tried it on another USB port with the same results. I then tried it on
another computer (which it has worked on fine in the past), also running XP,
and the same thing happened. It said it was new hardware and began
installing drivers, when it finished I had 3 new drives again and each one
is empty and useless i.e. when I try and open them it tells me to insert a
disk into the drive (how can you insert a disk into a flash pen
drive???**!!)

I have files on the drive I don't want to loose. I've not found anything
similar on the web or newsgroups.
Can anyone here suggest what might be wrong?
Thanks.

 

[Guest]

one time something similar happened and it was the flash drive that was broken
does this happen on other computers as well?
if not try a different usb port

 

[HarryHorse]

one time something similar happened and it was the flash drive that was
broken
does this happen on other computers as well?
if not try a different usb port

In my post I said that I'd tried it on other USB ports and on another
computer with the same results.
Does this mean the drive is dead?
Does anyone have any long-time experience with flash pen drives and if so
how long do they usually last for? Mine is less than a year old.
Has anyone had anything similar happen?
To recap the drive was working normally, then yesterday when I plugged it in
Windows thought it was new hardware and began installing drivers for it.
After that the drive appears as 3 separate drives with 3 different letters,
drive J, K L etc when there should just be one.
Each letter is inaccessible. When I click on one it tells me to 'insert a
disc', 'no media present' etc
Thanks

 

[Quaoar]

Hello.
I've been using a USB 1.1 Flash Drive (64mb) with various windows xp
computers since January and have not had any problems.
However today, when I inserted the drive into a USB socket on the main
computer I've been using it with I received a popup saying 'new
hardware detected'. Windows then started installing drivers for it.
When I looked for it in My Computer/Windows Explorer I found THREE new
drives instead of one and none of them work. When I try and open each
one it says 'insert a disc'. I cant format them as the computer
thinks that no disk is inserted.
The USB Mass Storage device appears in the Device Manager with no
problems.
The Flash Drive has been working fine on this computer. I've not
installed anything new since I last used it. It shouldn't have
recognized it as new hardware because it has been installed for
nearly a year and is not new. I tried it on another USB port with the
same results. I then tried it
on another computer (which it has worked on fine in the past), also
running XP, and the same thing happened. It said it was new hardware
and began installing drivers, when it finished I had 3 new drives
again and each one is empty and useless i.e. when I try and open them
it tells me to insert a disk into the drive (how can you insert a
disk into a flash pen drive???**!!)

I have files on the drive I don't want to loose. I've not found
anything similar on the web or newsgroups.
Can anyone here suggest what might be wrong?
Thanks.

The drive might be failed. To recover the files, there are several
flash drive file recovery apps; Google flash file recovery.

Q