Strange Things Are Afoot With This USB Drive

Reader Keith Lai writes to ask about strange errors regarding a USB drive and his Windows 2000 PC. "When I connect the drive, I get many windows with error messages about ejecting the drive and losing data. But I just connected the drive and am not trying to disconnect it. Help!"

Windows 2000's treatment of USB is rudamentary, and frankly it's one of the worst parts of an otherwise fairly decent OS. There could be any number of specific things going on with your system here, so let's tackle them in order:

• Does this happen with any other USB device? My first hunch is that your thumbdrive is failing and may be on the verge of death. You'd be surprised how common this is, as they are susceptible to damage from being dropped or knocked around and can degrade over time (though manufacturers say they don't). If you try a different drive and don't get the errors, this is probably the problem.
• Does this happen in every USB port? You could have a bum port on your PC causing things to act up. Again, happens all the time. Try a different USB port.
• Update the BIOS. Your computer may need a BIOS upgrade to handle modern USB devices. Try downloading an update from your PC vendor to see if this fixes the problem. Run Windows Update to ensure you have all the latest hardware drivers for your machine as well.
• Check rights issues in Windows. This is probably not the problem, but it's simple to check. The instructions on this page will show you how to check the rights and fix the problem if you have one.
• Try a System Restore. If this is a new problem try rolling back your PC with System Restore to a time before the error began occuring. You may have a corrupt driver and this is a simple way of fixing it.
• Uninstall your USB drivers. If none of the above work, try removing all USB drivers and reinstalling them. Make sure all USB devices are unplugged, then go into the System Control Panel, then click Hardware and then Device Manager. At the bottom of the list you'll find "Universal Serial Bus controllers." Click the + sign to open up this list, then delete each sub-entry one by one (just select each and push the delete key). After they're all deleted, restart your computer. Windows will automatically discover the USB ports and controllers and reinstall the drivers. After this is completed, reconnect your USB drive and see if it works.

If none of these solutions helps, your Windows installation is probably corrupted beyond the point of help. Consider reinstalling Windows or upgrading to XP, which doesn't have nearly as many problems with USB devices.

Good luck!