USB Drives not showing up

[glricht]

Alright, I'm going to fess up. I'm an idiot. After spending a total of about 5 hours trying to troubleshoot this and figure out what was going on, I finally figured it out. I reinstalled drivers. I reinstalled Windows. I made sure everything was up to date. I tried using USBDeviewer. I booted into Ubuntu 11.04 off of a CD. I tried every USB device I could find in every port on my laptop. Anything and everything I could think of...

In the end?

I was plugging the thumb drives in upside down...

*sigh*

Thanks all for your thoughts, input and help. Feel free to point and laugh, now.

I never thought of it because I didn't realize it was possible to plug in a USB thumb drive upside down. All the USB drives I've ever seen (thumbs, external, etc) has the little plastic block in it to prevent you from doing just that.

 

[indy-pc]

I never thought of it because I didn't realize it was possible to plug in a USB thumb drive upside down. All the USB drives I've ever seen (thumbs, external, etc) has the little plastic block in it to prevent you from doing just that.

Some of the newer thumb drives forego the block on the end so they can make them with a smaller profile. Here is the thumb drive I have: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820139595. The "case" flips open and reveals just a very thin jack that can very easily be oriented upside down.

A lesson learned that will hopefully help someone else in the future.