Flash Memory Cards and USB Flash Drives

[robertkirby]

I have a 2GB Crucial Gizmo! overdrive USB drive that I bought just over two years ago, it's been working fine until recently: It now recognises the device in Windows as 'SKYMEDI' and the 2GB storage is now listed as 2TB, I'm all for extra memory but this doesn't seem quite right! Mac OSX doesn't even recongise it and I can't format it on either OS.

I have looked through this forum and can't find any similar topics, apologies if I have missed one. There does seem to be quite a lot of similar errors after googling the issue but with no clear solutions.

Please can someone help, the data on it isn't massively important but the USB I can't live without. Thank you in advance for your help, looking forward to being able to transport files again soon!

[lordgllynn]

Is it recognizing any data you have stored on it? If it is, you may wish to remove the data to your primary drive and attempt to reformat the jump drive. This way, if the thumb drive is failing, you've already removed your precious data before you attempt to fix it. Because, once you start the reformat, if something is wrong with drive itself, it will pretty much self destruct. At that point, all you can do is try to get an RMA started. There is some good news though. Crucial and Lexar (a Crucial partner) both have amazing upgrades available for next to nothing (US $20 to $30). If you can't RMA, maybe the upgrade will be worth your while.

[robertkirby]

I can't view anything that is stored on the USB;when I plug it into a PC running Windows it recognises something is in removable drive E: but then displays the message 'No disk in Drive E, insert a disk and try again' and the same message appears if I try to reformat it. If I plug the USB stick into a Mac it prompts you to initialise it before you can use it but thenwill not allow you to delete / reformat the drive as 'access is denied'.

I don't know why it has relabelled itself as well, it just suddenly started being recognised as 'SKYMEDI' when I have never given it a name.

As I said the data isn't vital so I can stomach losing it if I have to reformat the USB but I just want it working again now, can you or or any moderators help on this??

Thanks

[Crucial_maulmod]

It would be best to get this exchanged if you are still having problems on both systems after formatting.  The relabelling also seems strange so it may have developed a fault.  Please use the proper link for your location below to arrange a return, and reference this thread so they can see the troubleshooting you have done.


US Customer Service
US Warranty and Returns

UK/EU Customer Service
UK/EU Warranty and Returns

Thanks