flash drive and camera

360view

Hi,
For some reason my pc no longer 'reads' my flash drive or camera. Both work on my laptop so I don't think there is anything wrong with the camera (usb lead) or the flash drive.

With the flash drive I've tried using different usb ports on the pc, uninstalling/reinstalling drivers and changing the drive letter, but pc still keeps asking me to format which I don't want to do as I'll lose the data on the stick and the photos on the camera.

Can anyone advise? thanks.

OneADay

You could just copy your data onto the laptop as a backup.

Switch back to the pc and format the usb key.

Plug into laptop - copy data you previously saved back onto usb drive etc...

What format is the usb drive - is the laptop a mac?

360view

thanks for your reply.

I'm not sure what you mean by ' what format'? it's a pen stick and the lap top is not a mac. I just don't understand why pen stick and camera have been working fine up to yesterday! I've also tried switching everything off and unplugging etc. and it still doesn't work!

OneADay

Have you done the backup of your data first to the laptop - that should be your first priority.

Most USB pen drives do not require software drivers - camera memory does usually - but does your camera come with a memory card?

If the camera comes with a memory card, you could take the memory card out, plug into a memory card reader (if you have one) and plug that into the PC to see if it is recognized.

The USB pen drive should not require drivers as stated above but if it does, then it could be the cause of your pc problems. Driver mix up.

To sort that out you really would have to dig deeper to uninstall all drivers.

Does the pc come up with a drive letter and then a prompt to format?
If it does, then its worth trying to format it (if you have backed up data to laptop first).

360view

I've saved all the data from the stick to the laptop. The pc recognises the stick as under drive 'g' and asks me to format it. The camera does have a memory card but I don't have a card reader to check it. However, I'm able to download photos from the camera to the laptop. When I connect the camera to the pc is recognises it as drive 'g' and asks me to format it. Why does the pc ask me to format them when last week they were fine?

OneADay

Well it sounds like PC is suffering from driver problems or may even be hardware but less likely.

If you have backed both usb and camera data to the laptop - its worth trying to format the usb key on the pc and see if it actually finally starts to work.

For the camera - well completely remove all software related to the camera from the pc - including drivers - reboot and re-install and try.

360view

when I tried to format the stick, windows said it was unable to format it but wiped everything off anyway - I know this as previously I could access files by carrying out a search. Now the stick is empty and un-formatable but continues to work on the laptop, I'm now copying the saved files back onto the stick! I really don't understand what is going on.

Many thanks for your help and patience :beer: