Can't find USB stick on laptop

[nappyaddict]

I plugged in a USB stick and a little box came up saying it had recognised a new device but when I tried to install it I didn't have enough disk space. I have now uninstalled a load of old stuff and resolved the low disk space problem but when I plugged the USB stick back in nothing is popping up like usual to say it has recognised the new device. Is there a manual way of finding where the USB stick is on my laptop? I have looked in My Computer and no extra drives have appeared. The USB stick is flashing so I presume it is working.

Do you have another USB port (or a USB hub) that you could plug it into ?

Just that sometimes drivers seem to be loaded for each different port and using a different one might 'kid' the machine into prompting for a new device being found.

Incidentally, it's not that common (in my limited experience with about 6 different memory sticks) for any drivers to be needed (such that you'd get an out of disk space error).

Is it a really large (16 GB+) capacity stick, or one with some special encryption/ extra software on it? Some do have extras and when plugged in appear as two drives, a CD-ROM and a flash drive, where the CD-ROM autoruns to load software to provide options for the flashdrive (such as free software, or encryption facilities, or password protection).

Also, while nearly all USB drives are compatible with both USB v2 and v1.1, I have sometimes known a drive be classed as "unknown device" if plugged in via a hub where power or something else seems not quite right... only option I have found is to use a different USB port if that happens... Have had a few other items (IDE disk controllers for external HD) which finally report "unknown" on every port of every PC, and it was bin time (but admittedly, only cost a fiver to start with, 5 years ago now).

I have 3 USB ports on my laptop and have tried it in all 3. I just can't understand why the laptop recognised it the first time, but not this time. Grrr.

Sorry, cannot help then... Flog it on Ebay and find yourself a bargain online for less cash...

Bought a couple of 8 GB sticks for 9.99 each, inc postage, a few weeks back. Somewhere like SVP.co.uk or Misco.co.uk or Ebuyer.com have short term bargains, or "Wild Wednesday" / "24 hours only" type offers.

Better yet, buy some from Dabs.com. They occasionally have 8 gig sticks for about a fiver. But you have to keep an eye on the site to find the deals!

Although I don't understand why you needed any space to load a USB? It had special drivers or something?

I don't know? I just saw it on Ebay and bought it.

I would be very worried about what was on that USB stick. It might be trying to install some drivers, older USB sticks sometimes did that.

However it would also be very easy to put some dubious software onto the stick that would then install something bad on your PC.

Installing anything off of a drive or USB that you don't know the exact origins of is an insecure thing to do at best...

If you've got a malware scanner run it now.

If not download something like this:
www.lavasoft.com/products/ad_aware_free.php

To find it manually, open My Computer, and you will see different drives/ports. Click on each one of these (usually F or G). If your computer is not recognising it at all, take it to a local computer shop to see if there's a problem with your machine or the USB. Hope that helps.

I've got Drive F but that is the DVD bit.