Win 7 - Curious Behaviour with USB Memory Stick

Hi Folks,

Today's third puzzle from me (and this is driving me insane).

Cutting a long story very short, some scans from a WiFi AiO printer wound up on my wife's laptop rather than my own. I duly went upstairs, plugged a USB memory stick in and moved the scans to the memory stick using cut and paste - then back downstairs to my lappy.

Plug the USB stick in - no files.

Re-scan the documents (again appear on Wife's laptop). Again upstairs to her laptop with memory stick and transfer the scans again using cut and paste. Close the explorer window and re-open from My computer and the transferred files still showing on the USB stick. Back downstairs to my lappy again.

Plug USB stick in - again no files (arrrggghhh).

Back upstairs, re-scan documents, appear on wife's laptop (this alone is driving me nuts). Plug USB stick into laptop - COPY and paste this time, close window, re-open to verify they are there, eject memory stick and back downstairs again for third time!

Plug USB stick in - no files again. So I resort to emailing them to myself via gmail - success!

Any idea what is going on?

Scans in question were in PDF format and they would open in Acrobat on my wife's laptop!

Any help gratefully received - this is driving me bonkers

Zaph

Hello Zaph mate you have PDF software on your computer I am assuming??

The other thing that would be helpful to know is does the machine make that plugged in noise when you shove the stick in?? and are the sticks showing up as drives in Computer??

Hi John,

Yes, computer knows memory stick is plugged in and yes, Acrobat is installed (Reader XI version 11.0.11)

Zaph

Ok mate I take it the machine recognises other sticks / drives??

Now I am also assuming the drivers are up to date? Just lately my main desktop lost it's ports because there was a problem with the Samsung Magician software that stopped the machine from seeing any sticks or drives put into ti. The fix if you have it (Magician) installed is to uninstall and then reinstall if you want to. I chose to leave it out as it is of no particular value to me.

When you plug the usb flash stick in the computer does it show up in Disk Management or My Computer?

I also email to myself various things. Save all the unwanted exercise.

Yep it seems so Jack I am just thinking maybe the power is on the data connections or the data itself is / are somehow compromised.

ICIT2LOL said:

Ok mate I take it the machine recognises other sticks / drives??

Now I am also assuming the drivers are up to date?

Hi John,

Yes to both!

Layback Bear said:

When you plug the usb flash stick in the computer does it show up in Disk Management or My Computer?

Hi Layback,

Yes to both!

Layback Bear said:

I also email to myself various things. Save all the unwanted exercise.

Sneakernet does have its uses!

Zaph

Suggest: Copy some files from your own computer onto the USB stick and transfer them to your wife's computer to see if it works in reverse.

Re: Eject USB. Was that using "Safely Remove Harware Wizard" with write cache disabled on the USB?

Did you try a different USB?

Did you try NTFS formatting the USB or use FAT or FAT32?

You can also try copying files to USB. Leave it plugged in. Switch off the computer. Then unplug the USB after a couple of minutes and see if it then works when plugged into the other machine.

Interesting. Maybe try a test. Navigate to and copy paste files using portable Explorer++ to see if the same thing happens. Explorer++ runs without installation.

https://explorerplusplus.com/download

Sorry Callender, I'm not sure what you are suggesting here.

Memory stick is Lexar 8Gb formatted as FAT32.

Here's what's happening.

The USB stick works fine.

Wife's laptop (a Toshy C660). Open a new Word doc. Write some stuff "Testing, testing, testing". Save to USB stick (filename 'TEST'). Eject and go to my lappy (SONY VAIO). Files are there and can be transferred to the Vaio,

My laptop (SONY VAIO). Open new Word doc. Write some stuff "Yet more testing, testing, testing". Save to same USB stick (Filename 'TEST 2'). Eject and go to wife's lappy. Files are there and can be transferred to C660.

Wife's lappy. Copy (from Windows Explorer) a file - can be anything. Fie appears in the folder. Close the explorer window. Go back in (via Computer) - files still appear. Eject stick, go downstairs to my lappy. Put USB stick in and open explorer window.

WHERE ARE THE DARN FILES?!?

Back to Wife's lappy. Cut and paste a file. Check (as above) that it is there. Jog downstairs & put in my lappy.

WHERE ARE THE DARN FILES?!?

Sneakernet epic fail. Resort to gmail transfer - great success.

Any ideas peeps?

Zaph