Jonathan Smith Posted September 4, 2009 Share Posted September 4, 2009 I bought a 32Gb Flash Voyager a while ago, and have returned it to the reseller twice already due to the device failing. This morning it failed again. The symptom now is that when I insert the USB stick Windows recognises that it is there but when I click it in Windows Explorer I am instructed to "Please insert a disk into Drive E:". No blue light flashes on the memory stick. I tried uninstalling the driver and inserting the stick. Windows merrily went off and installed the drivers but the same things happened when I tried to access it. Now, I've spotted a trend with this issue over the 3 failures I've experienced. Firstly, I use the stick with the USB extension cable as I can't fit it properly into my USB slots when I've got a Kensington lock attached due to the shape of the stick itself. Secondly, the failure only ever occurs when I'm listening to music (stored on the memory stick) using WinAmp (I obviously haven't tried other media players). Thirdly, and most importantly, the stick has only ever failed when the above is going on and I then insert my Vodafone 3G card into the PCMCIA slot. When it goes searching for a network (3G or GPRS) my music goes into scratched record mode and the blue light on the stick goes out. If I look on Windows Explorer at this time the stick isn't shown, so I remove it and reinsert it. The blue light flashes rapidly, but when I click the files structure on the stick, kaboom, the stick becomes unrecognised. So, somehow, to me as a user, there is an issue between the 3G card and WinAmp playing music held on the memory stick. I suppose it might be sound-card related, possibly. I have yet to find a way of recovering my memory stick other than sending it back and getting a replacement, albeit I've lost 20Gb of music and other files when I do that. On a final note, when I reinserted the stick this morning immediately after the scratched record, I could see the files on my stick. All are (or were) held in a MS Windows Briefcase, and the briefcase was visible on Windows Explorer. I opened the briefcase and saw the underlying directory structure but as it refreshed the status of the directories in the briefcase that when it all went wrong. So, any views on what to do (other than re-re-return the stick for another one)? I'm running current versions (fully patched) of Windows XP on an IBM ThinkPad (T60) with 2Gb of RAM. Jonathan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corsair Employees RAM GUY Posted September 4, 2009 Corsair Employees Share Posted September 4, 2009 Let's get it replaced, please use the On Line RMA Request Form and we will be happy to replace it. Be sure to check the box that says “I've already spoken to Technical Support and/or RAM Guy.” Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonathan Smith Posted September 5, 2009 Author Share Posted September 5, 2009 ....this is the third such failure. I can get it replaced by the supplier I purchased it from. My frustration is having to do it again and again, and potentially repeating this for the next 9.5 years of its warranty. And each time I do that I have to reload all the data that sits on it. So, is there really nothing I can do to get the stick re-recognised by Windows? there no bit of software that can make Windows see the stick again and let me access it? Jonathan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corsair Employees RAM GUY Posted September 8, 2009 Corsair Employees Share Posted September 8, 2009 Not sure why you are having to go through so many. I would expect if you get another drive and it does the same thing something else is causing them to failure over time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonathan Smith Posted September 8, 2009 Author Share Posted September 8, 2009 I know - hence me logging this on the forum. I am sure that the drive itself isn't fault, just that somehow the driver, or whatever Windows does to read a drive, is somehow getting corrupted. I really don't want to have to keep returning these and if there is a bit of software that can be used to reset the drive then I'd really like to know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corsair Employees RAM GUY Posted September 9, 2009 Corsair Employees Share Posted September 9, 2009 Best thing is to have it replaced. It seems after reading the above information in more detail that possibly when using those devices stated above in that combination is damaging the drive possibly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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