Flash drive full -- no files!

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Guest

I've got a 1 GIG Sandisk flash drive. I copied some documents and a
couple of programs to it to take to school. When I try to copy
another file to it, I get a message that the drive is full. But when
I use explorer to see what all is already there, all I get is a blank
screen.

Why don't my files show up? Something ate the icons?


Awaiting your responses with baited breath, I remain, yours truly,
<*(((>< ~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~
 
The flash drive use FAT 16 and have a limited number of
bytes available for directories and files. If you have long
file names, the drive will become "full" because there is no
room left in the root directory for names. You may need to
reformat, and then create directories for the programs and
other directories for the data.


| I've got a 1 GIG Sandisk flash drive. I copied some
documents and a
| couple of programs to it to take to school. When I try to
copy
| another file to it, I get a message that the drive is
full. But when
| I use explorer to see what all is already there, all I get
is a blank
| screen.
|
| Why don't my files show up? Something ate the icons?
|
|
| Awaiting your responses with baited breath, I remain,
yours truly,
| <*(((>< ~~~
| ~~~~~~~~~~~
 
I've got a 1 GIG Sandisk flash drive. I copied some documents and a
couple of programs to it to take to school. When I try to copy
another file to it, I get a message that the drive is full. But when
I use explorer to see what all is already there, all I get is a blank
screen.

Why don't my files show up? Something ate the icons?


Awaiting your responses with baited breath, I remain, yours truly,
<*(((>< ~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~
Click to expand...


Just hypothesizing here, if your flash drive has the file format as "NTFS",
which is default for WinXP OS's (I assume that is what you have at home or
where ever it is you copied the files to the flash drive), and the school is
still using Win9x OS (Win98/WinME) or using a Linux Flavor, then those OS's
won't natively read an NTFS formatted drive. Both can be made to read and
write to NTFS file systems, Linux by added some files to the kernal and
rebuilding and Win98/WinME has an NTFS4DOS read (for free), but the writing
will cause - I think that is offered by systernals, which funny, I think was
just bought by Microsoft.
 
I feel ill. Maybe the long filenames are the problem -- I've probably
got quite a few in there. Is there any way I can retrieve the data
before I wipe the flash drive?

Awaiting your responses with baited breath, I remain, yours truly,
<*(((>< ~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~
 
Hi Admiral,
That was a good idea, but ...
I didn't format the 1 gig sandisk. It's using whatever format
the manufacturer put on it.
It used to show my files and folders.
I'm using XP. The school is using Win 2000 or higher now.
PLUS, I used to be able to see the files on my XP laptop. Now
I can't. I don't think I added any files from school to the thumb
drive. I probably added some files from the laptop to it.
Now I see nothing.

The other poster had an idea -- but I don't know the solution.

MS bought Systernals? Pity. I have Winternals v3 which has
NTFSDOS but I've never used it.

What should I do?

Awaiting your responses with baited breath, I remain, yours truly,
<*(((>< ~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~
 
I'm not sure, but I think if the files are important a phone
call to the proper people would get you some help.

I would can the maker and also check their website for data
recovery and FAQs. I would also call Drive Savers and see
what they recommend. www.drivesavers.com

It is also possible that the drive was removed while data
was being written and the file allocation table (FAT). Back
ups are just as important with flash media as hard drives
and floppy disks. Or as they say, don't keep all your eggs
in one basket.



|I feel ill. Maybe the long filenames are the problem --
I've probably
| got quite a few in there. Is there any way I can retrieve
the data
| before I wipe the flash drive?
|
| Awaiting your responses with baited breath, I remain,
yours truly,
| <*(((>< ~~~
| ~~~~~~~~~~~
|
| On Tue, 5 Sep 2006 01:33:14 -0500, "Jim Macklin"
|
| >The flash drive use FAT 16 and have a limited number of
| >bytes available for directories and files. If you have
long
| >file names, the drive will become "full" because there is
no
| >room left in the root directory for names. You may need
to
| >reformat, and then create directories for the programs
and
| >other directories for the data.
| >
| >
| >| >| I've got a 1 GIG Sandisk flash drive. I copied some
| >documents and a
| >| couple of programs to it to take to school. When I try
to
| >copy
| >| another file to it, I get a message that the drive is
| >full. But when
| >| I use explorer to see what all is already there, all I
get
| >is a blank
| >| screen.
| >|
| >| Why don't my files show up? Something ate the icons?
| >|
| >|
| >| Awaiting your responses with baited breath, I remain,
| >yours truly,
| >| <*(((>< ~~~
| >| ~~~~~~~~~~~
| >
|
 
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