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General Flash Drive FAQ
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General Flash Drive FAQ



Q. My PC freezes after installing the Flash drive.

  • Disconnect the Flash drive from the USB port.
    Restart the PC without connecting the Flash drive.
    Once the PC has finished restarting, reconnect the Flash drive back.
    If this symptom continues, please attach the Flash drive onto another computer.
    If the same symptom prevails, please contact Imation technical support for assistance.

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Q. Once I plug in the Flash drive, I see this message "A HI SPEED USB device is plugged into a non HI SPEED USB hub" error message.

  • This means that you are having USB 1.1 ports. The device will still work, but you will not achieve USB 2.0 performance.

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Q. My flash drive is transferring data at a very slow speed.

  • Ensure that your USB port support USB 2.0. For the full USB 2.0 transfer speed, install the driver that came with the add-on USB 2.0 card. Otherwise it will transfer data at USB 1.1 speed.

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Q. Once I insert the flash drive into the USB port on my keyboard or USB Hub, I receive an error message.

  • This is due to a power limitation. Most USB 2.0 devices require more power. In order to resolve this issue, you will need to insert the Flash drive directly into one of the main USB ports.

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Q. How do I safely remove the Flash Drive?

  • If you are using Windows XP, 2000 or Me, we recommend that you use the "Safely remove hardware" icon in system tray to STOP device before removing.
    In Windows 98, it is recommended to shut-down your system before removing the Flash drive from the USB port.
    This will minimize corruption to the content in the Flash drive.

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Q. When I remove my Flash drive, I receive a "Delayed Write Failed Error".

  • This is due to the Flash drive being removed from the computer without safely exiting the drive.
    In order to prevent this error, you will need to do the following when removing your Flash drive.
    Make sure that all files that you had opened from your Flash drive are closed.
    Click on Safely Remove Hardware.
    This will allow you to safely remove your Flash drive. 

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Q. Can I unplug the flash drive while reading/writing data to it?

  • If it is unplugged during such times, data on the flash drive can become corrupted or lost. However, even if the data are damaged, the drive can still be re-used after re-formatting with Imation formating tool. It is best to wait a few seconds after inserting or removing the Flash drive before using it.
    Avoid removing the Flash drive immediately after inserting it into the USB port.

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Q. If I am running a software application, what happens when I unplug the flash drive?

  • If the Flash drive is unplugged while running an application, the window screen will become blank. You can press the Esc key to return to normal.

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Q. Will the Flash Drive work on my Mac?

  • Flash drive works on Mac OS 8.6 or higher with USB support.

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Q. Can I share the flash drive over a LAN?

  • Flash drive can be accessed over a network by enabling the file sharing of the drive.

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Q. Can viruses infect the Flash drive?

  • Yes, Flash drive is just like any other storage device, you can scan, protect or remove any viruses from it using any standard anti-virus software.

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Q. What should I do if I dropped my Flash drive in water?

  • You have to make sure the drive is dry completely outside and inside, before plugging it into your computer. Moisture inside the Flash drive can short-circuit the USB port and cause irreversible damage to your computer. As Flash drive is not designed to be water proof, the intrusion of water into the components of Flash drive will result in a shorter life-span of the product. As such we recommend that backup should be made as soon as possible.

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Q. My computer cannot detect the Flash drive. What should I do?

  • Try refreshing the screen by pressing F5. If that still doesn’t work, make sure that your USB port has been enabled in your BIOS setting. You can check your BIOS settings usually by pressing the DEL or F1 key during the boot-up screen.

  • If the problem persist, go to Control Panel -> System -> Device Manager . Look for any “Unknown” device and remove them. Unplug the Flash drive from the USB port. Restart your computer again before re-plugging the Flash drive onto the USB port again. Proceed with the usual device driver installation when Windows 98SE reported a new  hardware is detected when the Flash drive is plugged into. Follow the Windows 98 setup instructions.

  • If you are using Windows 98 / 98SE, make sure that you have installed the drivers for Flash drive correctly. Please note that the drivers need to be installed after the USB port has been enabled.

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Q. Will the Flash drive work on Windows NT4.0?

  • No. Windows NT does not and will not support USB. Therefore, USB Drive cannot be used under Windows NT. Please consult Microsoft for further advice.

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Q. Will the Flash Drive work under DOS?

  • No. Because DOS does not support USB functions, the flash drive will not work under DOS.

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Q. How many Flash drives can I connect to my computer at the same time?

  • You can connect a theoretical maximum of 127 USB devices to your computer. However, it may not be practical to connect more than 5 Flash drives at a time to your computer.

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Q. Can I install a program on the Flash drive and use it on another computer?

  • Most programs copy some files to the Windows or Windows\System directory or modifies the registry during installation. When you move the flash drive to another computer, these files might not be registered there. Secondly, in one computer, it might appear as D: and another, if D: already exists, it will show itself as the next higher letter, E: This will be a problem for most software. Typically, software that does not require installation, e.g. Disk Manager.exe applications, will work.

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Q. Why is the capacity of my flash drive lesser than the capacity listed?

  • Most operating systems define 1MB (Megabyte) as 1024KB (Kilobytes) for formatted drive or disk. For drive or disk manufacturers, we define 1MB as one million bytes which is exactly 1,000,000 bytes for unformatted drive or disk. Portion of the ‘missing’ capacity is actually taken up by the file system of the formatted drive. 1KB = 1000 bytes; 1MB = 1,000,000 bytes” convention practice by storage manufacturer. This is an accepted convention in the storage industry.

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Q. A USB flash drive with data appears to be corrupted.  How to recover the data?

  • Whenever you experience data loss due to accidental erase or corruption immediately STOP using the USB flash drive. Try to retrieve the data via 3rd party data recovery software that are widely available for free trial in the Internet. Flash is very sensitive to power surge. A power loss or surge while the drive is being accessed can corrupt its content. While USB connector is a convenience mean to connect and disconnect a device, it does pose a looseness issue when it wears out. This looseness will result in sudden lost of power or power surge due to intermittent connection.

    Formatting of the drive using manufacturer supplied Formatting Tools will usually correct this type of corruption. After this correction, please remember to follow usual “Safely Remove Hardware” feature to stop the Flash drive. If this corruption persist even after formatting, please change to another USB port.

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Q. Why I can’t add any more files to my 1GB flash drive, even the drive capacity is not full?

  • All Imation drives comes preformatted with FAT file system.
    For FAT file system, there is a limitation to the maximum no of files/folders you can add to the root directory. Maximum file or folders the root directory of a FAT file system can hold is 100 – 150 files or folders add together. Once you have reached this limit, even your drive have enough disk space to hold some more files, you will encounter error messages from the OS, prohibiting you from adding more files to your drive.

  • The work around way is to create folders in the root directory, to hold all your files. Bearing in mind that the folders created cannot exceed the limitation too.

  • The default for Imation flash drive is FAT format. This is to ensure compatibility with older Windows 98, Mac and Linux. If you are sure that your flash drive will be used under a specific operating system and that you will need more files/folder in the root directory, you can consider formatting the drive to FAT32 or NTFS in Windows; or any other newer format that the operating system can support.

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Q. When I insert the flash drive & try to access the drive, it ask me to “Please Insert disk into drive F:\” or ask me to format the drive.

  • In this type of scenario, your flash drive is having some software corruption. You can use the Imation formatting tool to reset your flash drive back to factory default.

    Note: All existing data inside the flash drive will be deleted when the formatting tool is used.

    The Imation formatting tool will reset the flash drive back to factory setting. These Imation formatting tools can be downloaded from our web-site (http://www.imation-southasia.com) under the Support & Downloads link. Please read the readme.txt included before you run the formatting tool on your flash drive.

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