How do I delete copies of stuff on my memory stick?

[Amblydoper]

@gazpacho

To continue with Ethilrist’s comment. When I plug in my flash drive they appear on the windows equivalent of finder with a name that is independent of the letter assigned by windows. I can even assign a new name for my personal convenience allowing me to quickly and easily tell the various drives apart.

Really? Ok then. This has not been my experience with Vista and Flash drives. I know the names of all my Flash drives (Music, Toshiba 1, Toshiba 2… I need to get more creative) and these names never appear anywhere in Vista on the PCs on campus.

Also, I forgot about the Pop-up window when you stick in a flash drive, however, this is only useful when you first plug the thing in.

[mhendo]

@CoG888

On Windows, you must navigate your way through to “My Computer,”

Yeah, that’s a real tough task. Double-clicking “My Computer” on the desktop, or clicking Start > My Computer. I don’t know how we Windows people manage it.

@CoG888

and then guess what drive letter your flash drive was assigned. MS gives you no indication as to which letter it might be, but pops up a “WRONG!” window if you guess incorrectly. Imagine the chaos when you have 3 or more drives plugged in at once!

As others have pointed out, Windows will quickly ask you what you want to do with the drive you have just inserted. And even if you have that feature turned off, many flash drive will show up in My Computer as more than just a drive letter. For example, one of my flash drives appears with a drive letter and the word Corsair, making it trivially easy to work out which drive is my USB drive.

On a more general level, if you tell My Computer to Show in Groups (View > Arrange Icons By > Show in Groups), it will open USB flash drives under Devices with Removable Storage, rather than under Hard Disk Drives, making it even easier for us Windows dummies to werk owt ware owr filez iz.

[Musicat]

@mhendo

Yeah, that’s a real tough task. Double-clicking “My Computer” on the desktop, or clicking Start > My Computer. I don’t know how we Windows people manage it.

There’s an even easier way, if your browser is open. Type a valid drive letter (A…Z) into the URL window followed by a colon (:), then press <enter> or click on <go>. You now have a “my computer” display instead of an Internet browser.

BarnOwl, you do know how to copy files from one disk to another, don’t you? If so, a USB flash drive is just another drive and it works the same way. If not, perhaps some basic computer 101 instruction is in order?

[BarnOwl]

@Musicat

There’s an even easier way, if your browser is open. Type a valid drive letter (A…Z) into the URL window followed by a colon (:), then press <enter> or click on <go>. You now have a “my computer” display instead of an Internet browser.

BarnOwl, you do know how to copy files from one disk to another, don’t you? If so, a USB flash drive is just another drive and it works the same way. If not, perhaps some basic computer 101 instruction is in order?

TY, Musicat. I’ll do after I bomb out at Poker.

[BarnOwl]

@Ethilrist

Assuming you’re using a PC, it’s a hard drive. If you’re using Vista, Click on Start, My Computer. If you’re using XP, double-click on the My Computer icon on your desktop. You should see icons for each of the drives. Look for one not C: or D: that also isn’t a CD or DVD drive and double click on it. Search around for the files you don’t want on it, and delete them. Bear in mind that it won’t have a recycle bin, so this is a non-recoverable delete, without access to some fairly arcane technology.

If you’re using a Mac, I dunno.

Using a PC and your advice worked.

Thanks, Ethilrist.

[gazpacho]

@CoG888

Really? Ok then. This has not been my experience with Vista and Flash drives. I know the names of all my Flash drives (Music, Toshiba 1, Toshiba 2… I need to get more creative) and these names never appear anywhere in Vista on the PCs on campus.

Also, I forgot about the Pop-up window when you stick in a flash drive, however, this is only useful when you first plug the thing in.

I don’t know what to tell you. On my wife’s Vista laptop the flash drives are labeled with the name I gave them. Just like they are on all the XP machines I normally use.