Background: Samsung series 9 ultrabook, i5-3317, 4GB ram, running W7 x64.

I transferred a load of files (mixed but office-type stuff, excel, ppt, pdf etc) onto a Lexar 16GB thumbdrive (FAT32 if that makes a difference). Everything was present and correct on the drive, I deleted the files off the external harddrive they were previously on.

Remounted the drive, and get 'this folder is empty'. Checking properties still shows 6GB used, and viewing hidden/system files shows 2 folders with a load of .chk 'recovered file fragments' files in there.

I have used various undelete programs and got some of the files back, but then this morning I mounted the stick again to actually finally admit defeat and wipe it when... it all came back. Everything. The folder structure, every file, everything was suddenly back again.

I moved some files around (on and off the stick), removed it, plugged it back in again ..... 'this folder is empty'.

Now, I know already that I was stupid in not copying the entire contents across as soon as I got it back. But I didn't. So sue me.

Anyway, tried remounting it about fifty times since then, and always 'empty'. Have tried remounting before restart, remounting while praying, remounting while whistling a happy tune...... no good.

Does anyone have any idea what happened? Or any idea of how to make it happen again?

help or advice gratefully received.

Stewie

First guess: you have a driver problem (on the Samsung).

See if the problem repeats on another computer, preferably not the same model; i.e., load the stick up again and see if you can read it elsewhere. If the problem follows the stick, get rid of it. If it doesn't, your problem is most likely the USB drivers in WIN7, or the hardware itself on your computer. Try other USB devices in the same port and see what happens.

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Tried the stick in my home desktop (dell running vista) and the same problem, ie stick showing as empty

So likely a stick problem? But is there anyway I could make it readable again? Or was this morning's temporary readability just blind luck, and I'm best to stop trying, throw the stick away and start from scratch?

Thanks for pointers

Well, we now know the problem follows the stick. So:

1. either the stick is bad, or
2. the Samsung is writing it in a poor manner.

Repeat the experiment by writing to and reading from the stick on the Vista machine (I assume that machine has been performing satisfactorily, so we know it's OK). If the problem shows up there, it's definitely the stick.

If the stick seems to perform well with Vista, write a bunch of files to it from Vista and then see if you can read them on the Win7 machine. If all is well, then there's a problem with Win7 write drivers.

For your own satisfaction, try the write/read sequence with a different stick. And use different ports on the Win7 machine.

Something us definitely upgefuggled here, and with luck and a little perseverance we can find the problem.

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Thanks for this - off to bed now, but will try all this in the morning....

That's why I get the big bucks.

Sleep well, my friend.

Could the stick have been pulled while Windows was still writing to it?

have done some more playing... the Samsung and the dell both write and read new files fine on the stick, but the darn 6GB of stuff that I really want stays stubbornly hidden...

any ideas

PS - don't think that the stick was pulled while Windows was writing