windows 7 - Files on new pen-drive going wrong

08
2014-07
  • 09stephenb

    I have bought a new pen-drive that is 512GB. I saw it didn't have a option to format to fat32 so I used a tool the do this. But after a wile I found that this was happening to some of my folders.

    enter image description here

    So I thought this may be just a one off so I tried to delete them but they wouldn't delete even through command prompt. What also puzzles me is that the creation date can be 1989 to 2040 so I don't know what could be happening here.

    enter image description here Then I saw that this had happened to a few folders. My question is if any one else has experienced this or knows how I could stop this happening to my files in the future. Thanks.

    • Answers
  • techie007

    Yes, the file system is corrupted, the data you are seeing is based on corrupted data on the drive (hence the made up/gobbledy-gook file names and dates).

    There is a few reason this can happen, here's the most common I've seen: 1) A device you inserted it into can't handle the file-system properly for some reason, and writes to it incorrectly. 2) The drive is pulled out/unplugged while being written to. 3) The drive is damaged (physically), or faulty.

    Assuming only this drive exhibits this problem, and it's not a regular occurrence, then you'll probably just need to format the file-system again and start over.

    If it keeps happening, then the drive is most likely bad and needs to be replaced.


    • Related Question

    Installing Windows XP from USB pen drive
  • OrangeRind

    I want to install Windows XP on my desktop computer (only XP) but my CD drive is not working.

    I've only found installation tutorials on how to install it on the pen drive rather than from the pen drive.

    Any ideas on how I can install Windows XP from a USB flash drive?


    • Related Answers
  • 8088

    The easiest way:

    WinToFlash starts a wizard that will help pull over the contents of a windows installation CD or DVD and prepare the USB drive to become a bootable replacement for the optical drive.

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    WinToFlash is freeware and portable.

  • Eduard Florinescu

    It is very easy also using YUMI which although is intended for linux works also for other OSs including Windows XP:

    If you want to keep the data on the USB pen drive don't check the Format E:\Drive (Erase Content) checkbox.

    enter image description here

    If you happen to not have the iso image of the CD you can create one if you donn't know how you can create it using CDBurnerXP

    And this is how you do that Copy Data Disc:

    How to create iso discs

  • PMGoldstein

    We actually did just this recently for an Acer nettop. I found Win2Flash and other USB booting to be extremely slow, unreliable, and ran into numerous problems. As soon as we ordered a $30 external USB DVD drive, it was installed in seconds.

    It's entirely possible to do this via USB, but if time / future instances are a concern, the drive is a worthy investment.

  • PHPst

    Rufus is also an excellent tool:

    enter image description here

    It can be especially useful for cases where: you need to create USB

    • installation media from bootable ISOs (Windows, Linux, UEFI, etc.) you
    • need to work on a system that doesn't have an OS installed you need to
    • flash a BIOS or other firmware from DOS you want to run a low-level utility