It's not just the cheap ones you need to beware of! I had a 2GB Memorex TravelDrive which refused to work after just a few weeks. The trouble seemed to arise when I accidentally overflowed it's capacity, after which it refused to read or write any data or even to accept re-formatting! Most of them have some hidden software built in which is not accessible.
I had a different problem with a smaller one last week, which refused to close for removal. This time I left it plugged in and did a re-boot. Windows XP seemed to sort it out on shutdown. It is often a good idea to try that if all else fails because Windows usually tries to resolve any problems when shutting down.
The main thing though is never to trust your valuable data to any one form of storage . . . always make at least 2 backups to different devices.
Mike.
