Bad USB stick or something else?

Two times now I have noticed that my USB stick cant be accessed. It has happened in Vista 32bit and now in Vista 64bit.
I have roboform2go and truecrypt (portable versions) on this stick.
I can see the drive letter for the stick but it can not be accessed.
I have to format the stick to access it and store files.
Tonight there were some kind of update (windows update) maybe that is the culprit?

Anyone have any idea why this happens? Maybe happened to you?
Is it just a faulty USB stick or can there be other reasons?

 

I don't know if it's the case, but I had a similar issue. I had a warning about H:/.vbs not found. That was because my antivirus had deleted that file, because it had got infected by our school's computers. I had to format to access the files. Have you had any USB infection lately? And can you use the Explore(right click) function to access the USB?

 

Hi and thanks for your reply.

I have not had any infections that I am aware of (or Trend Micro AV, Boclean or Windows defender for that matter) This is a fresh Vista 64bit install and I have not yet had any chance to infect it (ie install other software than those I know are malware free)

When I went to bed all was fine. Then in the morning I noticed that computer had rebooted (my fault, I had forgotten to change windows update not to install automatically)
In event viewer it said it had installed KB938371. Although I through a bit of googling see that many have problems with that update, none of them seem to have the problem with USB like I did. This update has something to do with windows update it self afaik, so I can get updates to come. I fail to see how it could affect the USB stick really, but who knows, windows hotfixes are known to cause the most bisarre effects sometimes
Before I formatted it I could not access the USB stick at all.

 

Things to note about USB, even if you already know it.

A usb port is unique. If you plug in a flash drive to port 1, it installs it. If you plug same flash drive to port 2, it acts like it has never seen it before and installs it. And on and on for ever usb port you have, even works the same for usb hubs.

A usb port can 'lose' it's memory as to just what should work for that port. Example, plug in flash drive to port 1. Use for a month everyday. On day 32 you plug it in, and it does nothing. Retry over and over, still nothing. Usb is 'losing it's mind' on that port for that device. You plug that device into port 2, works. 32 days later, no work. You go through all your usb ports, now none work. Going into device manager and showing unconnected items allows you to remove/uninstall offending device. This get's it all working again, but this is no good way for peeps who don't know what they are doing. Usb can be very flaky at times because of this.

Finally, usb is flaky. Did I say that? Well, it is. Get a usb hub. Plug it in. Ok. Now plug in usb flash drive. It works. Great. Now, depending on all hardware involved, you may have this happen or not. I have it happen often on many computers with many different hardwares. So, plug drive in. See drive. Good. Next day, plug drive in. Hmm. no see drive. Retry. No drive. Reboot. Now it works. Plug in next day, works good. Plugin in that night, no see. Try again, not working. Reboot. Working.

It drives me crazy. Now, I find 2 ways to ensure it works. If I can, I put the usb stick in before booting. This always works. If computer is already booted, but still not logged in for first time, put usb stick in. When first boot login happens, usb devices are parsed and usually device is found. Not always.

So, keep this in mind maybe if you use usb a lot and see flaky things taking place.

Sul.