Frequently Asked Questions

• Why does my DiskGO™ flash drive show up as 2 separate devices on my computer? Can I change it to be one single drive?

  No. The smaller 1.44 MB partition on our pen drives holds the security software you can use to unlock the DiskGO™ on computers that don't have the software installed. This partition is separate from the main space on the DiskGO™

• My DiskGO™ flash drive works fine at home, but when I take it to work, my computer does not recognize it. How can I get it to recognize?

  If your work computer is connected to a network, it is probably being recognized. Use of mapped network drives may be the problem. Network drive letter mapping will override Windows' built-in drive lettering for removable devices. This is a common occurrence in Windows XP and may happen win Windows 2000 as well. This is easily resolved. With the DiskGO™ plugged into the computer, go to Control Panel/Administrative Tools/Computer Management/Disk Management. This tool will show you information about all of the volumes on your computer. One of the volumes will be your DiskGO™ . Simply right-click on that volume, and choose "Change Drive Letter and Path" from the menu. Choose one of the available drive letters from the drop-down list which will appear. Now you should be able to see both partitions of the DiskGO™ in "My Computer".

• Can I use my DiskGO™ flash drive on both PC and Mac?

  Yes. You will have to make sure the DiskGO™ is formatted using a PC format (we feel FAT32 is best). We have found that formatting the device using a PC is best when using it between platforms. Formatting it for MS-DOS on a Macintosh has been known to cause problems for some customers.

• How is my DiskGO™ flash drive formatted when it arrives?

  Your DiskGO™ flash drive is formatted as FAT32 when it leaves our facilities. This format is recognizable by both Mac and Windows operating systems.

• Why does my DiskGO™ flash drive not show the full amount of space it is supposed to have?

  Due to the nature of the way computers allocate space on disks, there is some storage space lost to file allocation. This is the case with any hard drive or USB flash drive. The usable size of the DiskGO™ should be within about 10-12% of the device's stated size. If it is off by more than that, contact us for further assistance.

• Why do I get an "Error -50" on my Mac when trying to transfer files to the DiskGO™ flash drive?

  This error is due to the differences in file naming rules in the Mac OS and FAT32 files systems. See section b of #8 below for more information on this issue.

• What are the recommended file formats I should use when I format my drive?

  a) If you are a PC user and your source drive, where you intend to copy files from, is NTFS file format, AND you do not intend to use your DiskGO™ drive in a Macintosh environment, we recommend formatting the DiskGO™ drive with NTFS file format before you begin copying files to it. If the DiskGO™ drive is left in the FAT32 file format, you may encounter problems regarding individual file size limitations as NTFS allows files larger than 4GB and FAT32 does not.

  b) If you intend to use your DiskGO™ drive in both Macintosh OS and PC environments, it is important to note that the Mac OS file formats and the PC-based FAT32 file format, which is on the DiskGO™ drive by default, have different rules regarding file names. Mac OS allows special characters such as *, $, ()...etc. whereas FAT32 does not. When attempting to copy files from your Mac that contain these types of characters, you may encounter an "Error -50" message. To continue to access the DiskGO™ drive in PC environments, you must leave it's file format as FAT32. Therefore the only resolution for the Error -50 will be to rename the offending file names without the special characters.

  Note: For clarification of backup application, this drive is intended for use as a storage device for redundant copies of important files. It is not recommended to keep only a single copy of any important file on this drive or any other. It is always safer to have more than one copy of any important file and for those copies to reside on separate physical disks. Please remember when formatting your drive, all data will be lost and you should back up any files necessary before continuing.