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KeyLimePi · Jan 27, 2004, 01:35 PM

My girlfriend's Sandisk USB Flashdrive (MiniCuzer) stopped showing up on her iBook (10.3), and I can't get any of my Macs to recognize it either. Thing is, it still works fine in WinXP and Win2K. On the Mac the light blinks but it never shows up.

I'm guessing that one of those weird OSX files (DS_Store?) got deleted from it. Has anyone here had a similar experience with a flash drive? Is there some way to re-format a flash drive, or force the Mac to recognize it?

Thanks.

Cadaver · Jan 27, 2004, 05:47 PM

When you pop it onto one of the Macs, what happens if you launch Disk Utility? Is it recognized?

Ambassadeur · Jan 28, 2004, 07:25 AM

It's easy to reformat a flash drive. Behaves just like a normal drive. Disk utility would do the job on a mac.

But why don't you try to format it again on a PC? Normally, you'd use the PC format anyway to ensure compatibility between PCs and macs when exchanging data with your usb flash drive. Maybe this revives the drive for use on your macs.

(The flashing light(s) at least indicate that the drive is powered and running on your mac.)

KeyLimePi · Jan 28, 2004, 08:04 AM

Good advice. I originally tried Apple's Disk Utility but it couldn't see the drive either. So on my Win2K machine I did a 'Get Properties' on the disk and told it to "Uninstall the Drivers," which it did. Win2K can still see it, though, but there's still nothing showing up on our Macs.

I sent a note to SanDisk though their webpage a few days ago but haven't heard anything from them.

Ambassadeur · Jan 29, 2004, 08:54 AM

Originally posted by KeyLimePi:
Good advice. I originally tried Apple's Disk Utility but it couldn't see the drive either. So on my Win2K machine I did a 'Get Properties' on the disk and told it to "Uninstall the Drivers," which it did. Win2K can still see it, though, but there's still nothing showing up on our Macs.

I sent a note to SanDisk though their webpage a few days ago but haven't heard anything from them.

I am no pro on W2k, so haven't heard of an "uninstall drivers" option so far. You never stop learning... Did you try as well to completely re-format the flash drive on the PC? Just like a new harddrive I'd assume. To get it back to that out-of-the-package state.

Anyway, hope either you find the solution or SanDisk will be able to help you!

Cadaver · Jan 29, 2004, 01:58 PM

Originally posted by KeyLimePi:
Good advice. I originally tried Apple's Disk Utility but it couldn't see the drive either. So on my Win2K machine I did a 'Get Properties' on the disk and told it to "Uninstall the Drivers," which it did. Win2K can still see it, though, but there's still nothing showing up on our Macs.

I sent a note to SanDisk though their webpage a few days ago but haven't heard anything from them.

Uninstall drivers was the wrong thing to do. Don't mean to be rude, but that was a mistake. You've removed the Windows OS's drivers for the USB flash drive.

Not sure really how to get those back, but what you should have done is "Format..." (from a right-click) on the device's icon in the My Computer window.

Ambassadeur · Jan 29, 2004, 03:44 PM

Originally posted by Cadaver:
Uninstall drivers was the wrong thing to do. Don't mean to be rude, but that was a mistake. You've removed the Windows OS's drivers for the USB flash drive.

Wouldn't the system recognize the flash drive as a new hardware component the next time it is plugged in and try to locate drivers for it, (maybe download them)? I guess there should be a way to restore those drivers then, Cadaver?

Cadaver · Jan 29, 2004, 05:29 PM

Originally posted by Ambassadeur:
Wouldn't the system recognize the flash drive as a new hardware component the next time it is plugged in and try to locate drivers for it, (maybe download them)? I guess there should be a way to restore those drivers then, Cadaver?

Uh, I guess. With Windows, who knows. But, I think it should reload the drivers when you plug it back in. Anyway, try it and then reformat the flash drive (as FAT32).