I am running Windows XP Service Pack 2. When I insert a flash drive, 4 different physical drives so far, and try to access the data, I get a message stating "The disk in drive 'X' is not formatted. Do you want to format it now. After answering Yes, and entering the required perameters, the system appears to start formatting, however It returns Windows was unable to complete the format. I can read all 4 flash drives on other XP machines with no problem.When I initially insert the drive, the message from the task bar identifies the brand of flash drive and the system sets up the drive as the next available drive letter, but without the file name. When I open properties, it knows nothing about capacity and identifies the entire drive as used space. The hardware tab correctly identifies the brand & model of the drive and clicking on populate under the hardware properties returns the correct drive capacityDisk Management identifies it as a Healthy (Active) drive and shows the correct capacity, but does not give me the drive name or file system, only the letter. I cannot format the drive from this window either.This is consistant with all 3 USB ports on my laptop and the 3 ports on the docking station. I have my keyboard & mouse attached through USB and I regularly attach my cell phone though the same USB port that I use for the flash drive. I have a Maxtor hard drive I use for backup that also works with no problem from the USB portI have no network drives mapped. When I change the drive letter and reinstall the device, the system remembers the new drive letter, but the symptoms remain. I have already installed the hotfix for the "drive masking bug". I used Device Manager to delete all USB components and allow the sysatem to rediscover them with no change in symptom. I also disabled my firewall, but this didn't make a difference either. I am getting desperate. I got no responses from Hardware and Drivers. I thought this might be an appropriate forum. Any suggestions?3 people need an answerI do too

I finally figured it out! follow these steps: Plug in the usb flash drive you're having trouble with. Now go into device manager and uninstall it, (should be under "disk drives") then unplug it. Reboot and during post press whatever keys are necessary to get into your BIOS. Under USB settings, set legacy USB support to "enabled". NOT auto, NOT disabled, but "enabled". Save and exit to boot into windows. Log on with administrative rights and plug in your flash drive. When detected, windows will install your device. Your flash drive will now work perfectly but you will have to reformat it before using it. I tried this bios setting before but I forgot to uninstall it first!

I tried your suggestion but it didn't work.

Get a different brand of flash drive altogether. Turns out, that the drive I had works perfectly on some machines, but I wasn't the only one that had a problem with the particular flash drive I was using. I had only occasional luck using it. I finally got rid of the infernal thing and that person has never once had a problem with it but a lot people do have issues with it. In trade I got a sandisk cruzer and it works fine. seriously, I tried using the same brand and capacity,but different drive, all of them brand new. same issues. I got tired of messing with it. I was ready to smash it with a hammer but instead got lucky and traded it. I had the exact same symptoms as you did. Never have had an issue with the sandisk cruzer 8gb. Seriously just get rid of the piece of ____ and get something else. There doesn't seem to be any other answer.