Preventing Potential USB Drive Problems

Our computers aren’t networked.   I did try to network them "once upon a time" but the resulting catastrophe isn’t something I care to discuss (nope, not going there).   Suffice to say that, once in a while we’ve needed to transfer data from one computer to another and this was complicated by the fact that the files are almost always larger than 1.4 MB so a floppy disk is no help, anyway, one of our computers has no floppy disk drive and, even if I was willing to burn a CD, only two of our four main computers have CD burners.   An inexpensive USB drive seemed like the perfect solution, even though I had to recruit some assistance from our local Linux Users Group to learn how to access a USB drive from our Debian computers (not difficult, just geeky, for which, thank you Lee!) but I had a serious problem from an unexpected source; every time I plugged the USB drive into my Windows 2000 Pro machine the computer instantly shut down and rebooted.   Windows really dislikes catastrophic shutdowns but fortunately this didn’t create any additional problems.   Still, watching your computer shutdown and reboot unexpectedly is not something the average Windows users is comfortable seeing.   I was very upset and really determined to find out what caused this problem and learn how to prevent it from ever happening again.

Sometimes having been an electronics technician for twenty five years has unexpected side effects.   In this instance, my knowledge of the effects of static electricity on digital devices, and knowing something about controlling those effects paid off for me.   After considerable thought and a fair number of experimental trials I’ve found a technique that can prevent static-electricity problems with USB drives and it’s simple enough to accomplish that anyone can quickly learn to implement it.

Begin by removing the cover from the USB drive and gently grasping it by the metal between thumb and hand while you touch your forefinger to the computer’s metal chassis for a few seconds.   Your finger represents a series resistance which prevents the static charge from dissipating abruptly (i.e. catastrophically).

Now, regrasp the drive so as to be able to plug it in but first touch it’s metal chassis to the computer’s metal chassis to dissipate any residual electrical charge.

Keeping in contact with the chassis, as much as possible, quickly shift the USB drive into position and plug it in.

By following this procedure every time I plug in the USB drive I’ve had no further problems with my Windows 2000 Pro machine shutting down and rebooting and, because it takes very little extra time, I’ve been using the same procedure before plugging the USB drive into any of our computers.   Remember the old saying that begins "An ounce of prevention"?   Oh yeah, that’s the one…

Don Crowder