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- Updated 3Aug06
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From 4 April 08 this page will now be maintained on the USBStickfinder website.
Don't loose your USB memory stick or MP3 player ever again.
If you are really technical and want to go futher a great place to start at is Jan Axelson's Lakeview Research
More technical information is at Planet Analogue from Analogue Devices
General USB related news is at everything usb
Again really technical but the place of standards the USB organisation
A USB site with most everthing you could need the USB man
Need to get some data that's been lost on your key, or your key stops working and you need to get your data back try Data Recovery for Flash USB, Hard Drive, RAID, Mac, Linux, Servers, SATA, SCSI, DVD Handycams, Camera Cards from Apex Technology.
Generic drivers
On older systems such as Windows98 you may need to load specific USB drivers. Here are a couple for you to try. Generic from Freecom | Generic from Newlink
Frequently Asked Questions
Does a USB stick last for ever.
My new USB 2.0 device is no quicker than my old device.
My stick is broken can I get the data back.
Spilt coffee on my USB stick is it broken.
Is my connection a USB1.1 or USB2.0.
How does a USB storage device work.
USB drive the always the same drive letter.
Add extra USB ports to my machine.
How do I format my USB drive.
First of all why do you want to, there is no real need to reformat a USB drive. It based on flash memory technology so there are no tracks as such to refresh.
If you want to simply ensure that the contents are erased then it would be better to use an erasing tool such as Restoration.
If you insist on reformatting then its preferable to go with the manufacturers supplied software. Simply using the windows formatting facility is not good enough. There is the well used utility from HP that is reported to work on many devices so this may be worth a try.
Unfortunately this download file appears to get moved about the HP website, you can download it here>>>
Is my USB stick broken.
After trying the device in another machine it looks like you are stuck. However if you don't have another machine or are confident enough to try some diagnostics software then USB sniffer website has a software utility that reads the bits and bytes that flow along the USB bus from PC to device. With this you can at least see if the device is communicating and the USB port is working correctly.
There is also the test tool from Sourceforge USB Mass Storage Device Memory Test that allows you to check the performance of USB connected memory devices.
Does a USB stick last for ever
No, the components used to build these devices have a limited number of read/write cycles. This is in the region of 100,000 cycles. But if you use your device everyday and are constantly reading/writing the same files to the same device they will reside in the same place in memory. Consequently you just need to be aware of the potential for wear out and device failure.
My new USB 2.0 device is no quicker than my old device
Various designs have differing speeds based on the components used and how they are put together. In general USB 2.0 devices should be quicker BUT they will not run any faster if they are plugged into a USB1.0 specification port or hub. Check all the links in the chain are compatible. If you plug a USB2.0 into a USB1.1 port then Windows should report that the device is pougged into a low speed port and could work faster in a different port.
My stick is broken can I get the data back
Very unlikely, and data recovery is an expensive business. If you could get an identical device maybe a skilled repair tech could swap components to get it working. But like any technology it is dangerous to rely on a single data source to store your data. Use an automatic back-up software package so you should always be able to get to your data.
Spilt coffee on my USB stick is it broken.
As there is generally no active power source in a simple USB stick, if the device is left to dry out in a warm place, such as on a radiator, the likelihood is it will work in your PC. If your device is powered such as an MP3 player, take out the batteries first and expect to just recover your data. It may be fully functional but remember if getting wet caused something to short circuit and you plug it into your PC that could supply up to 2.5 Amps, it could cause some damage.
Is my connection a USB1.1 or USB2.0.
Launch Device Manager from Control Panel > System > Hardware > Device Manager button and check the Universal Serial Bus entries normally at the bottom of the list. If there is an entry for Enhanced USB host controller you have a USB2.0 compliant system. Remember though that some of you're ports may still be USB1.1 so it's better to test by copying a large file and timing the performance . Some front panel ports for instance if an additional hub has been installed.
How does a USB storage device work.
Windows recognises the fact that a device is present in the USB port through the functionality of several device drivers. Inside the USB device itself an interface chip handles the communications with the driver and controls how the data is stored and retrieved from memory. The memory chips are generally NAND flash technology and have a serial data connection to the interface chip.
USB interface and control chips are manufactured by companies such as Philips, Atmel and Freescale (Motorola) containing their own software implemented by USB device manufacturers of whom there are many, particularly in the far east. This explains why repair of a device would be difficult. A simplified block diagram shows how a typical system is structured.
USB drive the always the same drive letter.
The easiest thing would be to assign a drive letter at each place when the drive is next plugged in, reserving it for future use.
To force it manually, right-click on My Computer and select the Manage menu item. Then click on Disk Management and scroll down until you locate the USB flash drive, right click on it and select Change Drive Letter and Paths from the pop-up menu.
Now choose a drive letter that will be free, set it to that, now this will become the drive letter that will be used whenever the USB drive is plugged into this computer.
Add extra USB ports to my machine.
Obviously you can use a USB hub but sometimes you want to integrate it into the machine itself. We regularly use these units from Maplin, some include bracktes adding ports on the front of your machine in a spare 3 1/2 inch drive slot. The ports are in the Home > Computing > I/O Cards > USB and Maplin have stores located around the country, they also do mail order.