"Cannot find the item" when trying to copy files to thumb drive

Hi Keith,

-      What is the file system of the thumb drive? Is it Fat, Fat32 or NTFS?

 

Try these steps and check if it helps.

 

a)     Backup all the data from the thumb drive to the computer.

b)     Right click on the Thumb drive and click on Format.

c)     You will have Format Window for your thumb drive.

d)     Under File System, select NTFS.

e)     Place a check mark on Quick format and start the Format.

f)      Once done, try to copy the files to the thumb drive and check if the issue persists.

 

For reference:

Formatting disks and drives

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-AU/windows-vista/Formatting-disks-and-drives

 

Hope this information is helpful.

Thanks, Kevin! As "luck" would have it, the night before I got your reply, I ran across the reformat as NTFS solution elsewhere and decided to give it a try. BUT, before doing so, I checked my other thumbdrives that were not having any trouble to see if they were NTFS or FAT32, and they were the latter. Still, I went ahead with the reformat on the SanDisk drive. It did correct the problem... but the issue I have with this is that the NTFS format seems to slow down (dramatically) the speed of the x-fer of such large files to the drive now. It starts out moving the usual quick speed, but then a few seconds in, the remaining time stops jumping in the forward direction and suddenly jumps backwards (suggesting that the speed of x-fer has suddenly slowed for some unknown reason). This slow speed continues until the file has completely moved/copied (and I mean significantly slow - not just a little slower - I timed a folder x-fer containing 1 file inside at a size of 1.36GB, and for the PNY (FAT32), it took 3min & 13sec. For the Cruzer (NTFS now), it took 6min & 22sec!) This a decided inconvenience, to be sure! I'm just wondering why I have drives that work just fine as FAT32 (PNY 8GB) and then the SanDisk Cruzer drives (both 8 and 16GB) won't function properly without changing them over to NTFS. On top of that, I didn't do the quick format option, which meant I had to wait literally about an hour or so for the format to complete (which really doesn't matter, since I theoretically should only have to do this once... but again, it's the inconvenience of the matter that bugs me, along with the fact that I don't have any understanding of this problem, as I would like to.) Anyway, your solution here provided me with extra detail that wasn't in the one I had located the night before, so had I not had any IT background, I would've needed the information you provided most definitely to help me along. For that and for your help in general, I thank you very much! If you have ANY further ideas on what might be causing any of what I have just told you about, please fill me in!! Thanks!

Hi Keith,

 

The issue could have occurred because there were some bad sectors on the thumb drive and a format using NTFS file system might have corrected it.

 

The reason behind slow transfer rate could be a background process/program, malware or the Universal Serial Bus Controllers (USB) date rate speed.

 

I would suggest you to place the computer in Clean Boot state and check if the issue persists.

 

Step 1: Clean Boot

Putting your system in clean boot state helps in identifying if any third party applications or startup items are causing the issue. If yes, you may have to contact the program manufacturer for any updates or uninstall and re-install the program.
 
Refer the following Microsoft KB article for more information on how to troubleshoot a problem by performing a clean boot in Windows Vista or in Windows 7:
 
How to troubleshoot a problem by performing a clean boot in Windows Vista or in Windows 7
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929135 
 
Note: After troubleshooting, make sure to put the computer to start as usual as mentioned in Step 7 in the above KB article.

 

Step 2: Run a malware scan on the computer to make sure the computer is virus free.

http://www.microsoft.com/security/scanner/en-us/default.aspx

Safety Scanner Disclaimer: There could be a loss of data while performing a scan using Microsoft safety scanner to eliminate viruses if any.

 

For more information about FAT and NTFS, please go through the following link.

 

Comparing NTFS and FAT32 file systems

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-vista/Comparing-NTFS-and-FAT-file-systems

Okay, Kevin - Got a WHOLE NEW issue, though it's still linked to the current one. I've done all that you recommended, though I already do a VERY thorough job of keeping the computer checked for malware of any and all kinds... (yet I still did a thorough check to verify all was well at this particular moment, to be sure.) So, here's what we've got - I can copy or move items, as I told you, but it takes FOREVER - as in over twice as long; BUT, I have now found that I cannot make use of files on the drive. What I mean by that is that if I have the movie on the drive, I cannot watch it b/c anywhere during the movie, it will suddenly lose the ability to read the file from the drive! This is very much akin to its ability to write to the drive and find the drive altogether suddenly disappearing, because when it happens (the reading problem, to be specific here,) I can no longer locate the drive on my "Computer" window (well actually, it's there, but when I double-click it, it shows nothing being there - just an empty window, as it did when it would get the error writing midway through - I'd try to go to "Computer" and double-click it, and the drive would show as though there were NO files stored on it, even though there were several that came on it originally. Now, I tried x-ferring the files OFF of this drive and onto the harddrive or another thumbdrive to watch, and it cannot complete that either!! Keep in mind, it's still formatted as an NTFS drive! It will start copying/moving, and then somewhere in the midst of the process, it will tell me that the drive is no longer available for reading and so I'm stuck all over again. If I unplug it and plug it back in, voila, it's there again, all files intact. I can put it on any XP machine, and no problems (I have 2 XP computers, btw, both of which have no problems in the world reading OR writing to this "faulty" thumbdrive.) ONLY the Vista machine is having these issues, and it's driving me CRAZY!! I REALLY don't think this could be a faulty drive, since it's working on XP machines like a charm, AND I had the exact same issue with the 8Gig drive I bought prior to this one (which is 16Gigs, remember), and I've found on Google that people have experienced this exact same problem with Vista and 7 ever since they came out (I've found articles about this problem as far back as 2008). I am literally at a total loss as far as what to try or do now. ANY ideas as to what I might look at, try, or who I might contact would be appreciated, and certainly couldn't harm at this point. I REALLY wanna know what this is all about!! If for no other reason, so that I can advise others that I do computer work for if they run into such a problem with their machines! Thanks in advance for your thought and help on this, as well as for the answers already provided!

I have a 1.8Gb video file on an SD that I'm trying to transfer to a computer and keep getting the same issue.  What's the solution?

@PJR6164 - I'm sorry to report that I never got any solution to the problem! I just took the drive back & bought a different brand of drive (Kingston), which I have never had any problem with. As far as the Sandisk thumb drives that were causing me problems, I had more than 1, & each gave the exact same problem, no matter how they were formatted (FAT32 Vs. NTFS). After days & days of trying w/o success to resolve the issue - including conversations with people in forums such as this 1, the only thing LEFT for me to do was to exchange for a brand that didn't have such issues. I would LOVE to know what causes this, but nobody seemed to have an answer. But I do feel at least somewhat better knowing that MANY other people were having the exact same problems on their systems, too. Evidently, Windows Vista & the other newer systems have some type of an issue with some particular brands of thumb drive/external storage media, where Windows XP does not. It's a shame, really... You'd think such issues would be with the OLDER versions of Windows, & RESOLVED in the NEW versions, not the other way around!! But it is what it is, I guess. Sorry I cannot give you any solid answer here. And I don't even know if you're having this similar problem for the same reason as me or not - yours might be giving this error message for a totally different reason than mine did - I can't say! But I wish you luck in finding a solution to this problem... or at LEAST a work-around.

I have that problem copying files from my Seagate External Hard Drive to HP_MyBook External hard drive (Both 1Tb) using WIndows7_Pro_64Bits, I installed VMWare and install WindowXP in this machine and I was able to copy files.

Good Luck