I like to keep a whole bunch of USB Flash Drives around for bootable Windows media, recovery, etc. I have a bunch of Patriot Xporter XTs and these were really fast and cheap drives. I can't seem to find them as cheap as I used to because they are discontinued.
All of the 2014 roundups compare USB 3 drives, but I haven't had much luck installing Windows from USB 3 drives even on USB 2 controllers.
On my windows 8.1 PC whenever I plug in any USB pen drive the thumbnail for the device is always an image of a Sandisk Cruzer Titanium as is the identity when I go to the safely remove hardware toolbar.
The Sandisk probably was the first pen drive I plugged into the machine when new but surely it should be picking up details of subsequent devices or at the very least showing generic details.
I'm running windows 8.1 x64. When I insert a usb flash drive into my PC, it takes maybe over 2 minutes before windows "finds" it and has it appear in windows explorer. I have the latest BIOS for my motherboard and I don't think there are any specific usb drivers to install.
View 2 Replies View RelatedAcer Aspire laptop. Host OS : Win 7 Home Premium SP1. Guest OS : Win 8.1 pro preview installed in VMware Player
Win 8.1 does not see my external hard drive or flash drive when I plug them into the USB ports.
How do I correct that?
I've tried everything. Basically it wont boot when using a USB 3.0 flash drive (which is faster than the external usb 3 hard drive am using) It simply stalls on the boot image part (The blue windows icon). And on my laptop it gives a blue screen type error. Yet wont let me boot into safe mode when using flash drive. However when I use external drive it works fine although the performance isn't great.
At first I though it could have been an issue with the boot/350mb partition so I copied that over. Still the same. I have also tried a fresh windows to go install with same results.
USB Stick: Patriot USB 3 45MB Write/160MB Read
USB HDD: External Case (USB3) With Toshiba 7200 Laptop Drive (ASMT 2105)
How to resolve this?
I have both windows 7 and 8.1 installed on my laptop but do not have an ssd. So switching from 8.1 to 7 is sometimes lengthy.(5mins or so)
what would be the fastest way to boot windows 7 when I am still in windows 8.1?
I like to be efficient
This is what I usually do:
Run msconfig
change my default os to windows 7 and restart.
Is there a better way?
ASUS X55C notebook I had windows 8.1 installed and my comp stop reading blue rays, so I called tech support. they told me to mail it in. they change my HDD cause a bad sector and installed normal windows 8 but changed my dvd/cd rom drive to matshita dvd ram. I use to have matshita dvd ram UJ8A0AS and it did play blue rays. now i'm calling back and they are trying to tell me that my model doesn't play BR's. that's the reason why I bought my computer. their call center verified all that. so can I add that driver to my device manager.
View 9 Replies View RelatedI'm currently testing Windows 8 To Go in a enterprise environment. I have some of the officially certified 64GB Kingston Workspace drives, Kingston DataTraveler Workspace 64 GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive - 1 Pack - Newegg.com, and they work fine but at $129 per USB they are too expensive to purchase that many right now (And these are the cheapest official option currently). I am now looking to find some other cheaper models of 64GB USB 3.0 drives that have their RMB set to Fixed (so they appear to Windows at a Fixed disk instead of a removable disk).
I've contacted a few USB manufactures and they have been less than useful at even understanding what the RMB setting is, and then on which of their own drives they may have switched it to fixed on. Sandisk actually switched all their USB drives over to appear as Fixed drives last year, and then they switched them all back to appear are removable again, so if you order a SanDisk USB drive in the past few months, it's a bit of a crap shoot in terms of what you get. I tried to order a few different ones but have not yet found a 64GB USB 3.0 USB drive that appears as fixed, except for the expensive WTG certified USB Drives.
Any other regular 64GB USB 3.0 USB drive's that are configured to be fixed drives in Windows?
If I plug in a drive (via a hub) and it does not appear in the drive list, is there a way to force a scan for new drives?
View 8 Replies View RelatedI am currently running Windows 8 64 bit and when I go to "My Computer" it is only showing my C: drive. I know my other drives (internal, external and dvd) are working because I can enter the directory name (ie. H: or E:) into the address bar and the content appears. Is there any way to fix this problem so that they show up in "My Computer"?
View 9 Replies View RelatedJust purchase this HornetTek X2-U3 JBOD USB 3.0 (HT-3210U3) - 3.5" DUAL BAY - JBOD - HDD ENCLOSURES
The only reason was because I had a spare 1TB drive and 500GB drive that I wanted to span into one volume, according the product spec it supports JBOD, which from my understanding should allow hard drive spanning, I understand that if one drive goes the data is lost, but that is not a concern of mine as I have numerous backups of my data. The problem is when I try to span 2 disk I get the following error "The operation is not supported by the object"
Here's a screenshot of the drives in question :
i have just installed windows 8.1 64Bit on my pc which was originally running windows 7 64Bit I have 2 internal backup drives in addition to my normal boot drive Both these drives have data and worked perfect in Windows 7 but in Windows 8.1 only one shows up When i try to access the one I can see it says drive not accessible Access denied It also shows used space and free space as zero bytes When i know it is at least half full.
Its a 2 terabyte drive same as i the one i cannot see at all I have uninstalled both drives reinstalled them updated every driver possible I have windows 8.1 on a slide in drive as windows 7 When i slide Windows 7 back into the same machine both drives show up no problem.
Its an ASUS M4A785TD-V EVO Motherboard I am begining to wonder would a Bios update if there still is one available
As this motherboard is getting on a bit now.
I have a Sony Vaio all in one but it doesn't have a cd drive. I've purchased two and neither were recognized by Windows 8. Can found a USB optical drive recommended?
[URL]
This is what Windows Explorer and Disk Management show.
Drives G, H, I, and L are completely non-existent. When clicking on them, Windows asks to format them. Properties shows 0 bytes Used space/Free space. I need removing these "drives" from Windows Explorer.
I am running Win 8.1 Pro x64. Today I noticed that the "Eject" option from the right-click menu doesn't work for either of my 2 CD-Rom drives, nor for a "virtual" drive - I get the same error message on all 3: "An error occured while ejecting [drive]".
Device Manager shows no errors, and I've tried uninstalling the drives and rebooting, but error persists.
Also, to be clear, it is NOT a physical problem with the drives, as I can open them without a problem through the buttons on the front.
Finally, if for some reason I can't fix this issue, any way to at least just DELETE the "Eject" from the context menu?
I used four drives in my hard-disk. I needed to extend volume for my C drive. So using the Disk management utility I was trying to shrink the drive F (as it was very next to C, as in Disk management). But something happen accidental here. I found that two of my drives E & F went missing after the operation. Also my laptop suddenly restarted (after perform a checking task). I am not sure how this happened and looking for a way to recover the lost partitions as they are seen still exist, including the data.
I was only trying to shrink around 283 mb of volume from a drive with 138 gb, as an experiment basis, to see it work. On that process the drives were lost and those are not shown into my windows now. Using a software EaseUS Partition Master, I could still see the drives still exist as they contain the data as used spaces, and also show the unallocated space of 283 mb but I am not finding a way how could I recover my partition without affecting the data.
My SSD (Intel 60GB) was becoming too small to hold my Windows 8 system partition so I found another use for that SSD and went back to HDD. I transferred whole SSD to HDD with Paragon Backup & Recovery 2013 free, and now the system gladly boots from HDD.
But Windows 8 is somehow still thinking that they are running on SSD. For example "Optimize Drives" (Ex Windows Defragmenter) shows "Solid State Drive" as media type and probably because it can't access TRIM functions, it is unable to defragment the drive, so it is yelling that "Optimization is not available":
How do I convince Windows 8 that they are running from HDD again?
I have tried to remove this disk from "Disk Drives" in Device Manager, also I removed/reinstalled everything under "IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers" and "Storage controllers" without any success.
When i power on computer, my usb flash drive isn't recognized right away. I need to re-plug the flash drive every time, when i power on computer, then it's recognized normally.
It's not such a big problem, but I have this usb flash drive always plugged at computer back side.
When I plug one of my flash drives into my USB port I get this message F:/is not accessible The request could not be performed because of an I/O device error. I tried a few of the methods I found on the Net but nothing worked.
View 2 Replies View RelatedI have Silicon Power Blaze B20 flash drive, which is not recognized by my desktop PC's both USB 3.0 ports. The flash drive's light blinks when pugged in, but no reaction from PC's side. I have tried to plug cord between flash drive and PC, but no change. It does recognize the device when plugged in any other USB 2.0 port. And the device is being recognized by other computer's both USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 ports, so I assume it is PC's fault, but what it is. My PC's USB 3.0 ports do recognize any other USB 3.0 devices - my external HDD, other USB 3.0 devices but this drive.
View 1 Replies View RelatedMy usb is apparently disk write protected. there is no physical switch on the usb. i can't understand it as it was working perfectly one day & the next it was write protected, it maybe to do with the fact that i formatted with 'wii backup manager' allowing me to put downloaded wii games onto the usb & play it on the wii, but i can't remember if i done this or not.
I googled the question and someone said to run cmd, diskpart, list disk, select disk X, attribute disk clear readonly, clean. it goes on for a few more steps but at this point i get the error message "DiskPart has encountered an error: The request could not be performed because of an I/O Device error. See the system event log for more information"
What can i do. the usb is only around a year old so shouldnt be damaged already.
When I try to format my flash drive it shows that the drive is Write-Protected. When I tried to remove it through diskpart it said it completed successfully, but when I try to format it again it still didn't work. I also tried removing it using REGEDIT with storage device policies, but that STILL didn't work.
View 3 Replies View RelatedThe issue is finding the file location for my flash drive. My computer only has 3 external USB ports. I have tried all of them, when the flash drive is plugged in somewhere on my computer it should indicate another drive location. I can't find anything....not sure where to look or if I'm looking in the right place. All that shows is c: drive & E: drive. The E: drive is exclusive for the OS system restore (can't be used; not accessible for anything else). The only other is the DVD drive. Nowhere can I find evidence of the flash drive plugged into the USB.
I have all the essential drivers & everything is up to date [I have a task scheduler & Driver updater software installed. All drivers are up to date. This is a new computer, only 2 months old].
I have gone into device manager & checked all the USB & composite serial bus controllers to make sure they are powered on (my computer has an energy saving management thing & it will possibly deactivate the hubs when not in use). According to the power management settings they are not set to "sleep" but all ports are active. I can't figure out why I can't find my drive, nothing is appearing when I have the flash drive plugged in.
Yet another lovely problem with 8.1. When I plug in my drive, it shows up in with all of my other drives, and when I double click it to open it, the explorer window freezes, and doesn't unfreeze until I unplug the flash drive. I don't know what went wrong. Maybe it is a driver issue? I am positive that the drive is fine, because it works on my laptop, and even works on this computer in a linux virtual machine.
View 9 Replies View RelatedSo I just built myself a new computer, and I had some issues with it lately. I had a bsod right when I play a flash video, Well in the first time, I hard re-set the pc and the next time, it just had a bsod, so im not sure what to do :/ I have a SSD, and im not sure if that is the problem. The BSOD was MEMORY_MANAGEMENT btw. I'm so worried since I spent all of my savings on this PC
PC Specs:
Intel Core i5-4570
GTX 750Ti OC Twin Frozer MSI
8GB Corsair Memory (2x4GB)
ASUS B85M-G
Seagate 1TB Drive
Kingston SSDNow V300 Series ssd
Windows 8 Pro x64
It is a 64 GB Toshiba USB drive (TNU). Problem is that every time I try to format to NTFS the normal way with Windows 7 or Windows 8 I get the message: Windows was unable to complete the format.
I tried to format it using the specific software from the drive manufacturer, TNA.
A friend managed to format it to FAT32, but the next time I tried to access the drive Windows showed a message saying that I needed to format the drive to use it. Then there appeared only the exFAT option.
I also tried some partition software, like AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard Edition, and it could format to both FAT32 and NTFS, but when I removed and put the USB drive back Windows again warned me about the need to format and again I had only the exFAT option left.
Trying to unlock a flash drive which is in write protected mode in Windows 8. There is no protect switch on the side of the drive.
View 1 Replies View RelatedIt pops up on the video screen I want to watch in Fox News website -- I haven't noticed it popping up on other sites as yet. It will list the site asking for permission to store information on my computer. The link I have attached below gives instructions on how to remove this pop-up. Is this flash player thing safe or is it some kind of virus or malware? The attached link refers to it as spyware. If I were to remove the Flash player program, will it affect playing games or whatever on my laptop.
View 7 Replies View RelatedMy five year old HP Pavilion crashed with virtually no signs of life, although the 2 320GB drives are only 8 months old, and are spinning when startup is attempted. No messages of any kind on the display; I checked the display and it is good. Bought a new HP, but it has Windows 8.
All my backup data is via Norton Ghost 15/Windows 7 and is intact on a 1 TB external Passport drive. I need to figure out how to retrieve this data.
A suggestion was made to just install the old Win 7 hard drive in place of the Win 8 hard drive in the new computer. New computer can't accommodate both old Win 7 hard drives, so I stuck the C: in, it per normal containing the startup and OS files. The computer would not boot from this drive, and delivered an error message to the effect "No bootable disk or drive has failed."
So the question is would there be anything in the BIOS of the new PC which would make it expect to see Win 8?? why it wouldn't boot from this drive? I realize the drive could be bad, but given the age of the drive, it seems unlikely...
I had a Seagate MyBackup 1TB external drive. When it was half full I decided to buy another one, the same Seagate, same model, same 1TB.
So I copied the files to the new one and I do backups every week or so for the changes.
Today I noticed that the old one uses 70GB more than the other.
I mean, 70GB is a lot. I checked the files carefully, it's all my movies. Both are the same capacity, 931 GB. Even same color. The only difference I found is that the newest has 16MB buffer and the old one only 8MB.
Just in case it is relevant, I first used a program called Cobian Backup to make incremental backups and so on, but it was a mess and I uninstalled, formatted the new one and copied the files directly.Maybe Cobian took 70GB of drive #1 and they are now lost in nowhere? I don't detect hidden files, hidden partitions, etc.
In CMD I did I found 4 Diskdrives, and I'm only aware I have 'C' and 'D' on my computer, is this possible malware?
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