flash drive in OS X...or rather, not in OS X

[aplasticspork]

so yeah, i bought this flash drive (from amazon at 62% off, dont worry ) as im posting this i realize that less than two weeks later sandisk updated it to be made of liquidmetal and have a capacity of 2 GB (im having a bad week ). so i got it the friday before last, and it worked perfectly up until yesterday (when i needed it to transport a project to school. i told you i was having a bad week)...

so when i plug it into any of the computers we have here (pc free household) the led in it just blinks really really fast and it doesnt mount, if you open disk utility it just sits there saying "gathering disk information" until you unplug the flash drive, if you open system profiler and go to the usb section it just sits there thinking and nothing shows up...then when you unplug it the computer freezes (nothing happens and mouse doesnt work) for about 30 seconds and then goes back to normal.

so i took it to school to test it on the computers there (pcs) since i was using it primarily for transporting my files back and forth. on all of the pcs it mounts and you can write to it, but you cant delete anything from it and you cant unmount it properly.

so i was wondering (hoping) if anyone has had an experience like this and knows how to fix it, otherwise i'll have to return it to amazon

i just want to reiterate that it was working perfectly for a week and a half. hopefully i will be able to return it if i have to, i haven't read the return policy properly...

help,
--andrzej

 

[simie]

I would copy all your files off it and onto a PC, as it mounts on that. Using a PC, format it using FAT32 and then copy all your files back on it again and then test it on your schools PC's and on your Mac.

If it fails then get it exchanged.

 

[Abulia]

I just bought a new 512MB flash drive as my 32MB cracked. (Plus it wasn't USB2.0).

First thing I did was format the new drive to FAT32. Copied my stuff over (on a PC) and took it to my coworker's PB in the office. Read the drive w/ no problems.

 

[aplasticspork]

problem is, i dont have access to anything on the computers at school cuz they limit everything (they're paranoid). i dont have school tomorrow, so i'll have to try on monday. i doubt it'll work though so i may have to borrow a friend's computer.

come to think of it, i did try to right click on it and click format there. it didnt work, it gave me the same error as when i try to eject it or delete a file. i suppose on monday i'll dredge this topic back up when i have more information.

thanks for your help so far

--andrzej