USB drive not reading memory stick

[Mel222]

Hello,

I have a new (used) T410 and have my back-up files and docs from my old computer on a Kingston memory stick. I put the memory stick in the T410 and it read it just fine, but I decided not to transfer everything at that time and removed the stick. A few days later I put it back in and now it won't work...at all. It doesn't work in my old computer either (it did previously). It's not an old memory stick either. So did it become corrupted upon putting it into the T410? Not sure anyone would know that for sure but it appears to be a goner and now I am afraid to put any other memory stick in this laptop again.

I tried to see if there was a problem with the drive and it says it is working fine. I also went into Disk Management and did not see any of the flash drives listed. Also, there is no drive listed if I go into Computer - I see two hard drives (C: for the OS, and H: for the Lenovo Recovery) and also the DVD drive but that is it. Shouldn't the drives for the USB ports show up? You'll have to excuse me if I am not articulating this in the right terms...not a computer geek.

thanks for any advice, tips or info

Mel

[wisdomkeeper]

If you pulled it out without safely unmount it(safely remove hardware), it might be corrupted.. Usually it's just the file system or partition and it might be saved. Sometimes memory cards just suddenly die. If you are afraid that it could be problem with the your integrated card reader, you aways can get external one(on USB) for 5($) bucks. But I think that this is not the case here.

[Mel222]

Hi Wisdomkeeper, thanks for your reply. I am new to lenovo thinkpads and not sure what you mean by a safe unmount? I just pulled it out of the port manually as that is what I have always done on my old Compaq laptop...is there another way (better & safer way) to remove it on the T410?

I also don't know what an integrated card reader is....guess I could google it

Edit to add: I was talking about a flash drive memory stick vs. a memory card.

[wisdomkeeper]

Hi Wisdomkeeper, thanks for your reply. I am new to lenovo thinkpads and not sure what you mean by a safe unmount?
Edit to add: I was talking about a flash drive memory stick vs. a memory card.

"Safely remove hardware" is a function of the operating system to safely unmount USB storage devices(like memory cards and usb flash drives). Using this function ensures that Windows has completed with the saving of all the information, flushed cashing and etc. It's not wise just to pull out your memory stick without first clicking on the taskbar icon and safely remove your USB storage device. You said that you just pulled out your USB memory and it's not recognized anymore in any of the computers you tried to plug it in. This might be the issue here. It's very tedious to aways use the "safely remove hardware", before disconnecting USB storage device, but it's wise.
Integrated component(including card reader) means any component, that is inside of your laptop. Integrated as a part of the device.
Also, I thought that with "memory stick" you meant "memory card", not "usb flash drive". I just got a little confused by your post. If I understood incorrectly, I apologize.
If you can't see your USB flash drive in the My computer, maybe the file system of the drive is damaged OR the entire partition is gone. Usually in this case you can see the drive in the Disk Management as drive marked as unallocated space. Also, see in the Device Manager is there "USB storage device" under the Universal Bus Controllers(you will need to expand the category by clicking on the cross left to it) The other option is that you have fried the drive by just pulling it out. Try with another USB flash drive, but this time use Safely remove hardware icon(and feature)
p.s I'm also new here. Don't worry.

[precip9]

Safe unmount is not required with a usb memory stick formatted with the FAT file system, which is the standard way of doing things, provided that the stick is not being written to at the moment of removal.

But Wisdomkeeper's advice has merit. If you are not attuned to what is going on in your laptop, take his advice, and it will prevent an operator error. If the stick was active when you removed it, it is possible that the controller on the stick was corrupted. But it is unlikely that the Thinkpad hardware was the cause. Compared to the rate of failure of usb ports, the failure rate of sticks is huge.

Go to Control Panel-->Adminstrative Tools-->Computer Management-->Disk Management, and see if it's listed. If it is, try formatting it. If not, there are repair tools for usb flash drives that might revive yours. See
http://www.rmprepusb.com/tutorials/repa ... lash-drive