Thumbdrive intermittently gives error message & not seen by Win10

I bought two Corsair Flash Voyager GTX 512GB USB 3.1 Premium Flash Drive, which I intended to use as a destination for backing up my two machines. The first time I used it, it worked fine & created a full backup with Macrium Reflect. I should mention that I take the thumbdrives out in the morning & put them in before I go to bed. The policies are set for quick removal, which I’ve read allows me to take the drive out without having to click “safely remove”. The next day, it was set to create an incremental, but Reflect log said it couldn’t find the drive. I tried to copy a small file to the drive & it wouldn’t. I rebooted & the drive worked & I was able to create an incremental backup. I removed & then plugged in the thumbdrive, I got this message:

I ran a scan, which showed no problems.

However, if I right click on the thumbdrive, choose “Open autoplay”, I get the same error message. Then I started the scan again & it said:

Then autoplay opened…it was set to take no action. I’ve used the drive in different USB ports & it doesn’t seem to make a difference. Sometimes I get an error message & sometimes I don’t.
1. Any idea what’s going on?
2. I have another thumbdrive that I use as the destination for File History & when I right click it, there’s an option to eject.

However, with my Corsair thumbdrive, this is what my right click menu shows:

There’s no option to eject.
3. Also, the 2^nd identical thumbdrive works fine on WinXP with no problems. However, when I just plugged it into my Win10 machine, I got the same error message. Since it only happens on my Win10 machine, can anyone think of what’s causing the intermittant problem?

Thank you in advance.

Megahertz said:

Try to delete all partitions and create a new one.
Open a CMD window as administrator and type:

diskpart
list disk (it will list all drives. Identify the USB drive number)
select disk n (replace n by the USB drive number obtained with list disk)
clean
convert mbr
create part primary
select part 1
format fs=NTFS quick
assign
exit (to exit diskpart)

Did you tested the Voyager GTX?
Have seen many fake drives.
H2testw
It will write small files till fill up the drive and then read to compare

Thank you for your reply! I can try this if you really think it's necessary (I already have some backups on the drive). I'm just wondering because both thumbdrives work in Windows XP with no problem & both have intermittent problems with Win10. And properties shows there's a lot of free space. I haven't tested them with the link you provided, but I will.

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teots said:

After reading your post, i suspect maybe there is a problem with your mainboard.

Thank you for your reply. How would I test this?

teots said:

Easy, just get a thumb drive of difference brand and size to test. And what did you format the thumb drive with ?
I think bigger size thumb uses exfat format.

I have several thumb drives and have never had a problem before. Also, I have another thumb drive attached, which I rarely unplug, and doesn’t give me a problem. The larger drives that I’ve mentioned are formatted as NTFS

I just checked one of the drives seems to work ok. The other one is not recognized on either my XP or Win10 machine. When I plug it in to the Win10 machine, I hear a "du du da" sound (the one that Windows makes when a device is attached. I also hear a sound when it's removed. In Disk Management it shows up, but all the right click options are greyed out. It doesn't show up in File Explorer, although "USB Safely Remove" shows it loaded. I've tried it in different USB ports.

It occurs to me that it must be defective, although when I right click it at the bottom of Disk Management, it says "this device is working properly".

I can't send it back unless I can reformat it because it does contain a full backup.

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Megahertz said:

Try to delete all partitions and create a new one.
Open a CMD window as administrator and type:

diskpart
list disk (it will list all drives. Identify the USB drive number)
select disk n (replace n by the USB drive number obtained with list disk)
clean
convert mbr
create part primary
select part 1
format fs=NTFS quick
assign
exit (to exit diskpart)

Did you tested the Voyager GTX?
Have seen many fake drives.
H2testw
It will write small files till fill up the drive and then read to compare

Thank you!! I apologize for not trying this sooner. When I finally tried it (since I was losing everything on it anyhow), Win10 finally recognizes the drive. Unfortunately, I ended up erasing a different USB drive by mistake, before I recognized which was the right drive. Luckily, it was a drive that wasn't too important.

In any event, I will try again tonight to backup to this USB drive. Thank you again!

@phrab

Don't know if this will help or not.

I have a Corsair Voyager GT USB 3.0 16GB.
When plugged into the motherboard ports it works fine.
When plugged into the case ports however... if I push it all the way in... it's not recognized, etc.
But if I pull it back out, just a bit...all is well.

Some USB connectors are a teeny bit weird.
See if your sticks have a certain depth, when plugged in that they... like better than other depths.

Ghot said:

@phrab

Don't know if this will help or not.

I have a Corsair Voyager GT USB 3.0 16GB.
When plugged into the motherboard ports it works fine.
When plugged into the case ports however... if I push it all the way in... it's not recognized, etc.
But if I pull it back out, just a bit...all is well.

Some USB connectors are a teeny bit weird.
See if your sticks have a certain depth, when plugged in that they... like better than other depths.

Thanks Mike. Right now it's working, but I'll keep that in mind if I have trouble.