Flash drive shows in My Computer but can't be accessed.

Posted by Mr_Chimp on Super User See other posts from Super User or by Mr_Chimp
Published on 2010-01-27T11:51:16Z Indexed on 2010/06/06 4:02 UTC
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usb-flash-drive

I have a flash drive. When I plug it into my (Dell, Windows XP) computer it appears in My Computer as an empty drive - not a disk with no files on, a drive with no disk in! Double-clicking drive J: gives the message "Please insert a disk into drive J" (I get the same if I type in "J:" to the address bar, too...)

Someone suggested going to properties and entering a name but it won't let me type in this box. I've looked in the disk manager and again it appears as an empty drive.

I'm thinking that it might be fried...Can anyone give me any advice on how to either fix it or tell for sure that it's gone?

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