If your USB flash drives aren’t showing up in MY COMPUTER, I may have the solution for you. I was having the same problem with my laptop (this solution applies to those of you running Windows Vista), I would plug my usb flash drives into my usb slots, but nothing would happen. I could not get them to show up in MY COMPUTER. The solution to this problem that worked for me is as follows:

Once you’ve plugged your USB flash drive into your computer or laptop click on the WINDOWS LOGO on your task bar. This will bring up the START MENU. In the START SEARCH field type in “manage” (without the quotes). From the results that display click on COMPUTER MANAGEMENT. When the “WINDOWS NEEDS YOUR PERMISSION TO CONTINUE” message appears, just click on CONTINUE. The Computer Management program will now appear.

From the left side items you want to click on DISK MANAGEMENT. Once you click on it the Middle Pane will display all drives attached to your system. Your USB flash drive should be listed here. In the bottom half of the pane it will be listed as REMOVABLE. What you want to do is click on the USB drive in the top section of the middle pane. Once it is selected go to the right pane and click on MORE ACTIONS, and then select ALL TASKS, and then CHANGE DRIVE LETTER AND PATHS. From here a new window will appear. It will say “ALLOW ACCESS TO THIS VOLUME BY USING THE FOLLOWING DRIVE LETTER AND PATHS:”, there should be nothing in the white area below this text, the reason for this is because your computer was not able to assign a drive letter to the USB drive, and thus it wasn’t able to appear in MY COMPUTER. What you want to do now is click the ADD button. You can now type in the drive letter that you want windows to assign to your USB drive. Anything from N and above would be a safe bet. Once you’ve put the drive letter in click on OK, and then OK again.

And that should be it. Your USB drive should be recognized in MY COMPUTER now, as well as any others that you plug in from this point forward.

Happy computing..

I was putting together a website for a client of mine and in the process of setting them up with web hosting I discovered that I was getting gipped; not by the client, but by the web hosting company. My client had purchased the same hosting package that I had but they were getting way more features than me (increased bandwith, storage space, unlimited number of addon and subdomains, etc.). I knew the reason for this was because I had purchased my package about a year ago, and my client only just purchased theirs recently. That being said, I felt that I should be getting the same features as they are, it’s not like the price I paid for my package was different than what they paid for theirs.

So, I decided to contact the web hosting company and let them know about my concern. I was fully prepared for the patented excuse of “we’re sorry sir, we cannot upgrade you because your package is based solely on what was provided at the time of purchase, and that is the contract that you signed into at that time. If you want the updated features you will have to wait for your contract to expire and then we will give you the features available at the time of renewal.”

What response did I get though:

“Not a problem sir, we’ll get that set up for you right away.”

I was floored! That is what a company is supposed to do, that is how they are supposed to treat their clients.

The point of all this is that you should be paying close attention to your web hosting provider. Look to see what the features of their standard packages are, and if you have the same package but not the same features that are being offered to new clients, then you should be asking the company for those updated or additional features. The company should not have a problem with this, if they do, then I would be very concerned about their customer service ethics. Keeping existing clients is the key to a successful business. So many companies out there feel that they can provide poor customer service because they figure that there are tons of people waiting outside their doors that want to do business with them. What they fail to realize is that the customers they are losing on account of their poor customer service are walking out those same doors and telling the people waiting in line just how bad the company really is.

Eric Meyer’s has a great story dealing with a similar issue.

I would love to hear any of your good or bad customer service stories as well.

Well, 2008 is upon us. I just wanted to make a quick post and say that I wish each and every one of you all the best for the new year. May it bring everything that you deserve and more.

cheers,
Jonesy