Member Avatar for legendarya49

For about the past month my Vista 32 bit student addition has been trying to format ever device I plug in weather it be a USB drive or an SD chip from a Camera or even my ipod. I know that this is not correct because I have tried all the devices on my other desktop with windows and they work fine, this issue is really becoming hard to avoid and I haven't found any help on any forums, help would be greatly appreciated. I am currently studying abroad and I don't not have my disks so reformatting is not an option, but I have pictures I need to get off and papers to write that I need to get onto a usb drive in order to print. thanks for your time

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Good result — do not let Windows format the device. When Vista asks to format a removable drive it usually means the OS cannot read the filesystem (partition table or filesystem marked RAW), the USB stack/drivers are confused, or a recent software change altered how removable media are handled. Assume the files are still on the device until you try destructive fixes.

Immediate, practical steps you can apply right now:

  • Stop and do not click Format. If the files matter, copy them off from a different machine or from a live Linux environment (bootable "Try" session). A separate card reader often shows cards more reliably than a camera slot.
  • Before any repair attempts, make a full image/clone of the device with an imaging tool so you can return to the original state if recovery tools make things worse.
  • If a simple copy fails, use a well-known recovery tool to extract files from the image rather than running Windows-format repairs directly on the original media.

Useful Vista-side checks and fixes (non-destructive first):

  • Inspect the device in Disk Management to see whether Windows reports a filesystem or RAW; do not format it if it shows RAW.
  • Check Event Viewer for disk/USB errors and run a full antivirus scan to rule out autorun-style malware.
  • If the problem followed a system change, consider rolling back that change with System Restore or by removing recent updates (search installed updates by date).

Notes on advice already posted: correctly pointed toward driver-side causes — refreshing the USB stack can help in driver-corruption cases — while the physical-pressure suggestion from is not a reliable fix and can damage connectors. For long-term safety, keep current backups, create restore points before big updates, and move off unsupported OS versions when practical.

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Member Avatar for caperjack

hi ,try going to device manager and open[hit the +] the usb device section bottom of the list ,uninstall all listed and reboot vista to have vista reinstall device drivers and try you device again

Member Avatar for legendarya49

I gave that ago but it had no effect, thanks for the suggestion though

Member Avatar for hradwarez

Press down external portion of your usb key. Hold it down until you will get a message saying that system is trying to access the data, this could take several minutes. Test and tell me results.

Edited by hradwarez because: n/a
Member Avatar for legendarya49

I actually just figured out the problem, it was a bad windows update for vista, who'd a thought? I went in and got rid of the update and all my sd and usb ports are working well now. Thanks to all who replied to my thread though it is much appreciated.

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