I'm sure this has been taken care of like a million times over but I have a SanDisk 128.mb mini Cruzer. When I insert the device into my front usb port after a fresh restart the light blinks and a icon shows up on the desktop. A second later its gone. I have read and attempted some instructions elsewhere on this forum and the instructions told me to log what my kernal was saying so I did and this is it:

Jan 8 20:17:50 localhost kernel: hub.c: new USB device 00:02.2-4, assigned address 7
Jan 8 20:17:50 localhost kernel: usb.c: USB device not accepting new address=7 (error=-71)
Jan 8 20:17:51 localhost kernel: hub.c: new USB device 00:02.2-4, assigned address 8
Jan 8 20:17:55 localhost /etc/hotplug/usb.agent: Setup usb-storage for USB product 781/8181/125
Jan 8 20:18:03 localhost gconfd (root-14350): GConf server is not in use, shutting down.
Jan 8 20:18:03 localhost gconfd (root-14350): Exiting
Jan 8 20:23:33 localhost kernel: /dev/scsi/host1/bus0/target0/lun0: I/O error: dev 08:00, sector 0
Jan 8 20:23:33 localhost kernel: I/O error: dev 08:00, sector 0
Jan 8 20:23:33 localhost kernel: I/O error: dev 08:00, sector 255992
Jan 8 20:23:33 localhost kernel: I/O error: dev 08:00, sector 255992
Jan 8 20:23:33 localhost kernel: I/O error: dev 08:00, sector 0
Jan 8 20:23:33 localhost kernel: I/O error: dev 08:00, sector 0
Jan 8 20:23:33 localhost kernel: ldm_validate_partition_table(): Disk read failed.
Jan 8 20:23:33 localhost kernel: I/O error: dev 08:00, sector 0

I really don't know WTH this means.

Additionaly after the removable thing on the desk disapears the folder for it is still in my mnt folder. And I can't seem to unmount it.

OK, try this:
Boot computer.
Login.
Open up a programme called usbview (may not be installed but should be on your install discs... if not, then try here).
Open up a terminal/console.
Plug in device.
Watch what happens on the usb-view programme. If it is recognised properly then it should appear somewhere on that. If it is not, then it may well appear as a red device.
From the console, type cdrecord -scanbus and check that it mentions a removable/travelling device.
If all this is going smoothly, then check the last few lines of the output when you type dmesg. This should give similar information to the above.
Change to the root user (su root) (the prompt changes from a $ to a #) and then type fdisk -l (note: that was a lower-case L).
It should show the partition tables of all attached block devices... of which your pendrive should be one. It should show up as something like /dev/scsi/host1/something.
If all this has gone well so far, then you should be in luck! Mandrake will, by default, create a new mountpoint: /mnt/removable. Try accessing your files there.

Ok it shows up and I have a thing on my desktop. When I try to copy somehting into it it says "Genneric Error".

When you typed fdisk -l as root, what did it show?

PS
Oh, and in order to make pasted-text (from a console, for example) look nice on these forums, you can place it in [ code ] and [ /code ] tags. Please note that you should remove the spaces from either side of the word code.

Um I get this:

Yes, notice that the first harddrive is 131Mb... that is your Sandisk. Since you have only one scsi disk in the list, your sandisk is going to be /dev/sda. Part 1 means 1 parttion, so /dev/sda1 is what needs to be mounted.

As root, try making a new mount-point and then mounting the device:
mkdir /mnt/sandisk
mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/sandisk
And then try reading files from there (as root), [b[ls /mnt/sandisk[/b]

Just a note... you're running Mandy 9.2 which has a (horrible) thing called supermount installed. It basically mounts your removable media (floppy, cd, pendrive, etc) when you try to access it rather than you having to explicitly mount it. This can cause problems.

Also, when you plug in your sandisk, wait a few moments and then check your /etc/fstab and I'll bet you have an entry for removable... scan through that line and you should find a bit that says kudzu - this is what recognises your usb media (such as pendrives) and sets up your fstab... and it also removes it when not in use. If you get rid of that, then you should be able to access you sandisk nicely.

Just as an example, this is what my fstab entry looks like:
/dev/sda1 /mnt/pendrive auto users,noauto 0 0
Works a treat.

Well i got it working great my only slight issue is that after removing the pendrive the icon doesn't disabear.

Did you remove the "kudzu" bit from your fstab? If so, then it'll probably stay there. The icons on your desktop relate to some of the entries on your fstab. If you're feeling lucky then put the kudzu thing back in and the icon should only appear when the device is plugged in. I would still advise you to not use supermount.

<a href="http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/showthread.php?s=&postid=701371#post701371">Here</a> is a post wherein I describe my own experience. Basically the Cruzer mini works automatically with Mandrake 8.2, but for the life of me I cannot get it working under a few other, newer distros (i.e., Mandrake 9/9.1/9.2 and Gentoo 1.4). This despite the fact I have another USB pen drive which works without a hitch on all of the above.

I've concluded there's something wonky with the Cruzer mini. I just wish I'd discovered the problems with it BEFORE I tossed out the packaging (I assumed it was OK when it worked under 8.2).

How do you get rid of supermount?

Just a note that I got my Cruzer Mini 128 working on Red Hat 7.2 by only mkdir and mounting. Easier than it was to install it in Win98SE. I've written to it in both, now time to go make sure Win98 can read what linux put on there...

I have the same device and same problem, however, I didn't find the solution as Thymox said so. The device even doesn't show up at . usbviewer gives a positive result. I have two keys one is quite old, USB 1.1, and sandisk is the newer one, USB 2.0. So, they both appear under the different columns. My sandisk appears on "Intel Corp. 82801DB USB2" and the other one is under the first "USB UHCI Root Hub" among four. it seems that my Mandy9.2 cannot reco the USB2.0 devices. BTW, it's downloaded version.
Please, anyone knows how to deal that?

I use SuSE 8.2 and am having problems with my cruzer mini 128 as well. A similar device, a SanDisk SD Card reader, works fine.

I recently found that the 2.4.xx kernel could be blamed for this problem. I am preparing patch to 2.6.x. Hopefully it can solve my problem. btw, I got this clue from a web called linux-usb.org.

So I should hang onto my SanDisk Cruzer Mini until I decide to upgrade to a 2.6.xx kernel based distro???

Or is there a workaround that doesn't involve a kernel re-compile???