PC Can't read external media

rpilko

Up to last week my Home PC was working fine but all of a sudden I am not able to read any external media. When I put in my Memory Stick it comes up with a message…this disk is not formatted. Would you like to format it now. I get the same with my SD Card, and Compact Flash Card. These all run through the USB and that might seem to be the problem but the same thing happens with my floppy disk drive. I know that there are files on these media and if I try them on another PC they all work fine. All my other peripherals work on the USB slots/hub (Printer/Scanner etc) so the USB is working. My CD and CD Burner are both working fine however as is my C Drive and it boots up fine. When I go into DOS and try and access the A: drive it comes up with the message…This Volume does not contain a recognised file system. Please make sure that all required file system drivers are loaded and that the volume is not corrupted. I have done the following:

1. Updated the drivers on all the media
2. Run a Virus scan on my system – found no viruses
3. Run Search and Destroy – found nothing

The Operating System is Windows 2000 with Service Pack 4. I know a few techies and they are all stumped. Any ideas?

Thanks

kingpuck

have you updated any drivers recently?

The floppy disc, did it work before or is this new? if it has been formatted in a windows 98 machine then there is a chance that it will not work under windows 2000.

rpilko wrote:

Up to last week my Home PC was working fine but all of a sudden I am not able to read any external media. When I put in my Memory Stick it comes up with a message…this disk is not formatted. Would you like to format it now. I get the same with my SD Card, and Compact Flash Card. These all run through the USB and that might seem to be the problem but the same thing happens with my floppy disk drive. I know that there are files on these media and if I try them on another PC they all work fine. All my other peripherals work on the USB slots/hub (Printer/Scanner etc) so the USB is working. My CD and CD Burner are both working fine however as is my C Drive and it boots up fine. When I go into DOS and try and access the A: drive it comes up with the message…This Volume does not contain a recognised file system. Please make sure that all required file system drivers are loaded and that the volume is not corrupted. I have done the following:

1. Updated the drivers on all the media
2. Run a Virus scan on my system – found no viruses
3. Run Search and Destroy – found nothing

The Operating System is Windows 2000 with Service Pack 4. I know a few techies and they are all stumped. Any ideas?

Thanks

rpilko

Yes I already updated the drivers to no avail. The floppy disk has been working since I first had the machine. All this problem only started last week

kingpuck

Is there anything you can remember installing, did you do any updates just before it stopped working?

rpilko

I did do a Windows Update where I downloaded DirectX 9.0C Runtime Version. I usually only download the Critical Updates but this was listed as another update for Windows 2000 - seemed to install fine. One extra piece of info - just discovered that although my CD will play audio CD's it gets the same error message if you put in a CD with Data.

kingpuck

I don't know what would cause this, I don't think directx should be the problem.

The only thing I could maybe suggest is data recovery software. This worked for me before but it was due to it getting corrupt, nothing like what is happening to you.

Is there anyway you could maybe try them in a different machine, at least that way you would get your data off them.