Win 7 - Curious Behaviour with USB Memory Stick

[ZaphodB]

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

 

[ICIT2LOL]

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??

 

[ZaphodB]

Hi John,

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

Zaph

 

[ICIT2LOL]

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.

 

[Layback Bear]

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.

 

[ICIT2LOL]

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.

 

[ZaphodB]

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!

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!

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

Sneakernet does have its uses!

Zaph

 

[Callender]

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.

 

[Callender]

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

 

[ZaphodB]

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

 

[Layback Bear]

If I understand you correctly; when you go downstairs with the usb stick the computer can see the stick but no files that are on the stick. Is that correct?

When in Explore can you right tick on your travel stick and show us one of these.
Use this method to post picture.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/9733-screenshots-files-upload-post-seven-forums.html

 

[ZaphodB]

If I understand you correctly; when you go downstairs with the usb stick the computer can see the stick but no files that are on the stick. Is that correct?

Hi Layback,

Sadly no.

There are files on the USB stick that both machines can see and transfer.

The problem has arisen when I cut or copy a file that is on my Wife's Toshiba C660 onto the memory stick. Windows Explorer on the C660 shows that the newly-transferred files are on the memory stick. I eject the stick, go downstairs to my laptop, plug the stick in and the da mn files aren't on the USB stick (or at least I can't see them in explorer if they are)!

This all came about when I wanted to scan some pages from a book to my laptop. The WiFi MFD printer/scanner scanned the images to (what it said was) my laptop - only they weren't there. On subsequent investigation, they were on my wife's laptop (which, frustratingly, is only 6 feet from the WiFi scanner!) So I grabbed a USB memory stick and transferred the files to it. Went downstairs to my laptop to use them and found that the weren't on the USB stick.

The same problem has occurred with both scanned images (TIFF files) and with PDFs. Apart from being dam n annoying, I want to understand why this is happening and how to fix it!

I hope that has clarified things. That's why I posted here with the thread title "Curious behaviour..."

Any further thoughts/suggestions welcome.

Zaph

 

[ZaphodB]

Here's the contents of one of the USB memory sticks in question ...

As you can see there are plenty of files on it (accessible from both C660 and Vaio machines)

Zaph

 

[Layback Bear]

Is your wife's computer hard wired to the scanner or is also using WiFi?

Is the Lexar Black a usb travel stick?

Here is what I think I understand.

1. The information can be read from both computer.
You can read it on your wife's computer and you can also email to your computer and read the information. That tells me that both computer have the proper programs install to read the data.

2. You wife's computer sees the memory stick and can read and use the data.

3. Your computer sees the memory stick but can not read, move or use the data on the memory stick.

Are we on the same page??

 

[Layback Bear]

Is that picture in your post #13 from your computer or your wife's computer?

Just a left handed thought. On your compute are you using 2.0 or 3.0 usb port?

 

[ZaphodB]

@ layback

Ref post #14

Lexar Black is a USB memory stick / pen drive / thumb drive - like this:

Lexar Professional JumpDrive S70 8GB USB 2.0 Retractable Design Flash Drive Memory Stick - Green (Pack of Three): Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories

It isn't necessarily the drive I was using when I first encountered the issue, I can't remember which drive I originally used -as it was 2 or 3 weeks ago. The most recent case was 2 or 3 days ago which prompted me to start this thread. The drive being used to illustrate the problem is a Lexar Jump Drive 8Gb (which is black) and I have renamed the drive as sometimes I have more than one USB stick inserted into the laptop - so I know I am ejecting the correct drive.

Again your post #14

Point 1 - BOTH computers can save information on the USB drive and retrieve information off the drive.

Point 2 - My wifes PC (the Toshiba C660) can see the USB drive and can read info off it and save info to it

Point 3 - My PC (SONY VAIO) can see the USB drive and can read info off it and save info to it

HOWEVER ...

Some weeks ago and again some days ago there was some info on my wife's PC that I wanted on my PC downstairs. I plugged a USB stick in, copied the info from her PC to the USB stick, went to my PC and the newly-copied files weren't on the USB stick. Puzzled, I returned to my wife's PC and then cut and pasted the info to the USB stick and went downstairs to my PC. Again the info wasn't on the USB stick. Eventually the only way to transfer the info was to email myself from my wife's PC upstairs with the files attached and log into my Gmail account downstairs and download the files to my PC. All in all it took some 15 minutes of messing around to get the files transferred!

My picture in post 13 is from my machine (which I'm currently sitting at) but both machines show the same thing when that USB stick is plugged in - there is no difference.

Zaph

 

[Layback Bear]

Instead of copy and paste try Send to or Copy to using the right tick and see if that makes a difference.

For what ever reason 2 and 2 is not adding up to 4.

 

[ZaphodB]

Instead of copy and paste try Send to or Copy to using the right tick and see if that makes a difference.

For what ever reason 2 and 2 is not adding up to 4.

Yep - I'd certainly subscribe to that point of view.

Will report back when I have more time / info.

Zaph