Is there a way to reinstall a USB Flash stick?
 

You see, I have this USB Flash stick, the Sandisk Cruzer Micro and for some reason, whenever I try to connect it, it ends up freezing my computer. The odd thing is that it worked fine a month ago. Any chance I can like uninstall it from the computer and then reinstall it or something like that?

Well there might be a program you put in your flash drive causing the problem or, a pre-installed program in the flash drive itself somehow got into your hard-drive. Dont really know if its possible to uninstall a flash drive but if your still having problems with the device, try doing a system restore. Just make sure to save any important information before doing so.

What OS do you have?......PLZ dont tell me its vista.....

Sadly, I am using Vista. :(

Try plugging it into a different USB port.

Zergrinch does have a good point, try putting it on a different usb port. If you still have the problem......system restore it. Vista is already messed up from the beginning anyway.

I just tried doing that right now. It didn't work. It said something about an I/O problem or something.

Oh yeah, it does work on my old laptop running XP.

Question, how long have you had this laptop with vista?

If not too long ago, then theres probably a faulty hardware contradicting this problem. Im guessing that specific hardware deals with your USB ports. What version of Vista do you have?

Um...how bout giving a brief descrition of the specs from your Vista Laptop?

I've had my laptop since September. It is running Vista Home Basic Edition. Here are my specs:

Intel Core 2 Duo Processor T5250 @1.50 GHz
2046MB RAM
46GB free HD space

The Flash drive in question stopped working in January. My older 512MB Sandisk Cruzer Mini still works.

Odd now that i thought of it, I used to have a 1 gig flash like yours that would not work but it didn't freeze my computer. Its probably the OS system and how much free HD space you have concerning this issue. RAM is definately not an issue here "unless one of the sticks is bad."

If your wondering, I too have Vista but the version is Home Premium. How much hard drive space did you originally have when you bought the laptop?

Another question: Did your flash drive had a pre-installed program inside from the beginning?

I understand Windows Vista by default uses memory sticks as temporary page file areas. Perhaps disabling this setting might help you. As for how, I can't help ya there.

Yeah. It had some program pre-installed in it.

I think I originally had around 100GB. I don't remember. I got a lot of music and Flash 8, RPGMaker 2003, Camtasia and some games like Battlefield 2 and BF2:Special Forces, GTA:SA, Doom and Doom2 (the folders with the source ports and wads for it are at a combined total of 800MB), and Mugen.

Copy the pre-installed program into your xp computer or a cd for the time being and delete that specific program in your flash drive. If your Vista laptop recognize the jumpdrive without freezing, then that program was the problem.

I got an error when I tried deleting that pre-installed file. So, basically, it said something about an early write error or something. I think I pretty much lost all my shit in the flash drive. Fuck...

Dammit, never mind. It still gives me an I/O error when it tries to load it up.

The flash drive itself might be the problem....see if any other flash drives you have works in this laptop? and it might help if future flash drives you buy is Vista certified or compatible with it.

You may try performing a Low Level Format on it, either with something like this or via Windows' Admin Tools.

I already said that my 512MB Sandisk Cruzer Mini works fine on this laptop.

hmm....try formating it into a different type. Of coarse this option will erase any data in your flash so just copy all your data into your laptop before doing so.