# Memory Stick Damaged?



## Gemma (Dec 7, 2008)

I am litrally less then a week into being a mac user, so forgive me if I come across as a little ignorant. I'm using Leopard and a 500gb Imac [I don't know if this makes much of a difference? please let me know if you need more accurate info]

I was using a 4gb Kingston usb stick to move files from my old pc to the new Imac and made the mistake of not ejecting properly since then every time I insert I get "the disk you inserted was not readable by this computer"

I've googled and googled trying to find some way to fix it and so far nothing :/
it does appear in disk utilities as "generic flash 2.0 media" and i have tried to reformat it, I erased as MS - DOS and then even tried to partition I've tried Master boot record & guid partition table both under MS -DOS [i really need to be able to use on windows as well as mac] underneath it continually says Unformatted beside partition map scheme. 

I've also tried to reformat using windows in the hope it might bring it back to life, again nothing - so I'm beginning to wonder have I just got a dud memory stick? I have a Kingston 1gb stick and when its inserted it appears as "Kingston" under disk utilities. 

sorry if not much of this makes sense, I just hope someone knows what i'm on about and can give me a helping hand


----------



## midijeep (Dec 8, 2008)

with disk utility:
highlight your stick on the left side of window, then go to the erase tab, then under volume format choose MS-DOS (FAT), click the erase button.


----------



## Gemma (Dec 8, 2008)

I did try it, and I had done it before still when I eject the stick then reinsert it's not recognised?


----------



## Hughvane (Dec 9, 2008)

Try taking it to a Win machine to see if it's recognised by XP (or similar). You may be able to reformat the flash drive via that avenue as well. As midijeep recommends, FAT32 is a cross-platform format. You won't be able to format HFS with a Win machine, but if you can get the drive restored, you can then reformat again using your Mac.

In the end, if nothing's going to work, then it may prove expedient just to throw the flash drive away (yuk!) and get another. Be sure in future to eject the flash drive before removing it AND, make sure you give the MacOS plenty of time, like 10 - 15 seconds. The MacOS is so darned precious about letting go of peripheral devices.


----------



## Satcomer (Dec 10, 2008)

When you take a device (external hard drive, USB anything) improperly and get that message just do a Reset Your PRAM and then re-attach the device then all should be well again. Hope this helps.


----------



## midijeep (Dec 10, 2008)

I would try what  Hughvane suggested, format the stick on a windows machine.  The mac will recognize the stick.  I have done this before and it works.


----------



## Hughvane (Dec 10, 2008)

Satcomer said:


> When you take a device (external hard drive, USB anything) improperly and get that message just do a Reset Your PRAM and then re-attach the device then all should be well again.



There are a lot of posts from concerned users about the USB Removal warning and the results thereof. Personally, I just ignore it and problems haven't occurred subsequently (Freudian perhaps??).

Anyway, is resetting the PRAM a 'proper' or 'official', or 'recognised' fix for the USB issue, or is it in looser terms a 'workaround'?


----------



## Gemma (Dec 12, 2008)

Sorry for the late reply - Thank you both for your replies, after reading I did attempt to format the stick on both my windows pc and another machine and both times the format wouldn't finish and said the volume would be unable to format. 

I also reset the PRAM using the apple page you linked Satcomer unfortunatly it did reset but again the stick still showed up and unable to read. 

I think i'm just going to have to accept the sticks a dud and throw it away, but thank you both for your help it was very much appriechiate


----------

