<OT> Memory stick corrupted by windows

[Joel Hammer]

I have a PNY memory stick, 512 megs. Very nice.

At work we have a windows 2000 computer on which I
finally got IS to install the Novell Net Client or some
such. Probably a mistake. Turns out I could use the network
for what I needed without the Novell Client, but, that's
another story.

After the install of the Novell Client, my USB devices
(a camera, memory stick) wouldn't allow themselves to be
unmounted. I get an error when I hit the eject button or
icon. It's acting as if the the device is in use. Other
computers in the department running the Novell Client
don't display this behavior.

In frustration, at times I may have just unplugged the
device without even trying to eject it. I have corrupted
the memory card (according to windows) in the camera
once (Fixed the problem by reformatting the card with
the camera) and now have damaged my memory stick. When
you plug the stick into the computer when it is running
windows 2000, the card seems to be recognized but the icon
for it doesn't appear in the drive list. However, if you
look at the mounted hardware the USB device is listed,
and if you unplug it, you get a nasty reminder that this
is not a good thing to do.

When running knoppix, this same computer (A really nice
Dell workstation) the memory stick and camera work just
as expected. The stick in particular allows you to run
and write to it normally. However, after this gratifying
result, rebooting back in windows 2000 gives the same
problem, ie, the icon for the stick never shows up on
the desktop.

So, the questions: 

1. Is there an easy fix for this memory stick? Can this
memory stick be reformatted like the memory card in the
camera?

2. Is there a way to tweak windows 2000 to start doing
the right thing with this stick? 

3. Is there a way to fix the original problem, that of
unmounting the USB devices in windows 2000?


Thanks,

Joel