I've had the same problem.  Often the problem is the default USB drive 
designation might be used by  another drive in your pc.  If you have 
multiple hard drives and/or cd/dvd drives, the usb doesn't always get 
recognized. You have 2 ways to try that might solve this - assign a 
drive letter to the device or rename an existing device to a different 
drive letter.
click START, then right click MY COMPUTER
click MANAGE
click DISK MANAGEMENT
right click DEVICE
click CHANGE DRIVE LETTER & PATHS
.
This enables you to reassign you cd/dvd drives (typically D and E if you 
have both) to a different letter - H, I, J, etc.
This can cause issues with installed software where a cd is required to 
run, since the drive is often syncronized at software install.
.
You can follow the same sequence with the USB drive on another computer 
where it opens by itself.  Simply assign it to drive H, I, J, etc.  Then 
any time you insert it in another computer, it will come up with that 
drive designation, not conflicting with the existing drives.
Paul Hachmeyer

Jim McCrary wrote:

>I am having quite a time trying to reliably connect to USB Flash Drives.
>  Reguarly they are not seen by the system.
>   
>  I have had to uninstall the usb devices reboot the system. 
>  This worked for a while.
>   
>  Now, I sometimes have to reboot the system with the flash drive in the PC for them to be seen (even after an uninstall/reboot sequence).
>   
>  This behavior happens on my home and work PC.
>  Suggestions are welcome.
>   
>  Home PC is XP and is kept up to date.
>  I do have an PCI - NEC 2.0 USB adapter on the home PC.
>   
>  Thanks for any feedback.
>  Jim
>
>  
>

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