USB devices will not connect, prompted to format drives

Have you tried formating the flash Drive with a command prompt?
If not, it's worth as shot I guess.

Open a command window by going to Start / Run and typing in CMD

Now type in the following command at the prompt:

format /FS:FAT32 X: (Replace X with the USB drive letter) and press Enter.

Yes, I have.

Is this happening with one particular USB flash drive only? If it is, try another flash drive and see if it has the same problem.

No, it's happening to other devices too.

What do you mean by other "devices" ? Other thumb flash drives, USB hard drives or are you receiving formating messages for printers, headphones, scanner, etc. Basically anything you plug into a USB port?

I mean that my other flash devices and my external HD aren't working either.

Hmmm, OK lets try this: How to Reinstall USB Controllers and Motherboard Chipset Drivers.

Cheers,
Lee

Hmmm, OK lets try this: How to Reinstall USB Controllers and Motherboard Chipset Drivers.

Cheers,
Lee

I finally got around to doing this and still nothing has improved.

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All attempts to fix this problem from suggestions by several techs here, have failed. It may be time to take a no nonsense approach. To my way of thinking, an XP re-install would now be the quickest way home. You would need access to either an XP disk or a factory reset partition (containing a recoverable ISO image of you XP setup when it left the factory) that may or may not be on your PC. You have not mentioned the PC brand and model that this problem is happening on, so we have no way of knowing if it has a factory reset / restore on it in a small partition (often hidden). If you know for sure it has, that's great but let us know your PC brand / model anyway. Or, do you have an XP installation disk? Have you backed-up all your personal data to removable media? Cheers, Lee

All attempts to fix this problem from suggestions by several techs here, have failed.
It may be time to take a no nonsense approach.

To my way of thinking, an XP re-install would now be the quickest way home.

You would need access to either an XP disk or a factory reset partition (containing a recoverable ISO image of you XP setup when it left the factory) that may or may not be on your PC.

You have not mentioned the PC brand and model that this problem is happening on, so we have no way of knowing if it has a factory reset / restore on it in a small partition (often hidden). If you know for sure it has, that's great but let us know your PC brand / model anyway.

Or, do you have an XP installation disk?

Have you backed-up all your personal data to removable media?

Cheers,
Lee

Yep, I have a disk. The PC is a Dell Inspiron 3000. I'm trying to get better info via the systeminfo in cmd but I'm getting an error message

I can't back up the data on a storage device due to the nature of the problem

Hi InDesolation,
until one of the other techs get back to you here are a couple of workarounds that you might like to consider:

1 Back up your stuff that is not already backed up to DVD or fit another internal hard drive as a "slave" and use that… or preferably try this:
2 Download Linux Puppy from here;
http://linux.softpedia.com/get/System/Oper…inux-1996.shtml

burn it as an image (a copy won't do….. it must be as an image….. ) use imgBurn for this, available here:
http://www.imgburn.com/index.php?act=download

3 Boot from the CD with Puppy on it…..follow onscreen directions….. if your USB ports work OK and "play nice" with your flash drives (memory sticks) then you can be sure that its Windows itself that is not working properly and a repair or system recovery using the Dell system Recovery partition (or recovery discs ) to restore your computer to its "factory" or "Out of the box condition" is a way forward.

4 Puppy will work wholly in RAM writing nothing to your hard drive (unless you want it to) and is entirely free under its GNU

5 You can use Puppy to back up files as its quitre happy accessing your hard drive and copying off your stuff to Flash Drives or external hard drive.

Its probably a lot quicker to use Puppy for the back up rather than trying to use DVDs .. However if Puppy can't get your memory sticks working…… plug one in before booting Puppy, then it points the finger of suspicion towards your hardware…..
Regards
paws

another work around that i think should work(puppy will definitely work tho. ) is connect the hard drive to your other pc(where it's seen) and format it with ntfs instead of fat32, then i think it will be seen on the pc your having trouble with and you can copy any data to it.