I'm having problem using my flash drive on Surface RT. recently, 95% of the time, when I plug my Extreme USB 3.0 flash drive into Surface RT, I get no response from the system, the indicator on the flash drive does not illuminate, there is no sound (the sound that plays out of speaks when a USB device is connected), and no drive appears in "my computer". I have been using this USB 3.0 flash drive on my Surface RT for over a month, and it was OK before, and i don't really know when exactly it started to act up. this is the only USB 3.0 flash drive I have now, all my other flash drives which are USB 2.0 work perfectly on Surface RT, and all my external HDDs work fine as well. the problematic USB 3.0 flash drive works fine with my Lenovo T420 and T500 with no problem at all if I leave the Extreme USB 3.0 flash drive in the USB port while I restart Surface, 100% of the time the flash drive is detected and recognized and working fine after reboot, but when I reject the drive and plug it back in, no response again. I have tried to change drive letter, reformat the flash drive, even reinstalled Surface RT in case it was a registry problem. doesn't change anything. I have contacted Sandisk and the only response I got was "we didn't test it on ARM based system"... any help?

So does anyone know if this is going to be fixed? It's been almost 5 months since I got my RT.

Because they use a different storage controller, this issue only affects a certain USB storage controller

So why is there no problem with my Surface Pro and my desktop - both running stock Win 8? Haven't installed a single old driver.

According to research its not a device issue, more of an issue with the drivers, as it affects Windows 8 as a whole. If you install older drivers for Windows 7 on 8 it apparently fixes the issue. However this is not an option on the Surface RT, as it enforces driver signing and its not possible to bypass this. And these drivers aren't signed for Windows 8

saw this somewhere and it worked for me - restart with the drive inserted and it's recognized. But take it out I have to restart again for it to be recognized. Just amazed at how something so basic could have gotten through - if MSFT was doing this as a challenge to force OEMs to make better stuff, then all they've done is reinforced the concept that it is ok to release buggy stuff.

Surface RT and Sandisk Extreme USB 3.0 Flash Drive

Anonymous

I'm having problem using my flash drive on Surface RT.

recently, 95% of the time, when I plug my Extreme USB 3.0 flash drive into Surface RT, I get no response from the system, the indicator on the flash drive does not illuminate, there is no sound (the sound that plays out of speaks when a USB device is connected), and no drive appears in "my computer".

I have been using this USB 3.0 flash drive on my Surface RT for over a month, and it was OK before, and i don't really know when exactly it started to act up.
this is the only USB 3.0 flash drive I have now, all my other flash drives which are USB 2.0 work perfectly on Surface RT, and all my external HDDs work fine as well.
the problematic USB 3.0 flash drive works fine with my Lenovo T420 and T500 with no problem at all
if I leave the Extreme USB 3.0 flash drive in the USB port while I restart Surface, 100% of the time the flash drive is detected and recognized and working fine after reboot, but when I reject the drive and plug it back in, no response again.
I have tried to change drive letter, reformat the flash drive, even reinstalled Surface RT in case it was a registry problem. doesn't change anything.

I have contacted Sandisk and the only response I got was "we didn't test it on ARM based system"...

any help?

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42 answers

Anonymous

2013-03-09T14:46:42+00:00

So does anyone know if this is going to be fixed? It's been almost 5 months since I got my RT.
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Anonymous

2013-03-09T14:38:06+00:00

Because they use a different storage controller, this issue only affects a certain USB storage controller
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Anonymous

2013-03-09T14:24:12+00:00

So why is there no problem with my Surface Pro and my desktop - both running stock Win 8? Haven't installed a single old driver.
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Anonymous

2013-03-09T14:18:15+00:00

According to research its not a device issue, more of an issue with the drivers, as it affects Windows 8 as a whole. If you install older drivers for Windows 7 on 8 it apparently fixes the issue. However this is not an option on the Surface RT, as it enforces driver signing and its not possible to bypass this. And these drivers aren't signed for Windows 8
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Anonymous

2013-03-09T14:06:37+00:00

saw this somewhere and it worked for me - restart with the drive inserted and it's recognized. But take it out I have to restart again for it to be recognized.

Just amazed at how something so basic could have gotten through - if MSFT was doing this as a challenge to force OEMs to make better stuff, then all they've done is reinforced the concept that it is ok to release buggy stuff.
Was this answer helpful?

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