It should show up as a new drive under "my computer". If it is not there, it is possible that the drive may not be formatted or partitioned. If this is the case, the drive may be found by doing the following:
Right click on "My Computer"
Click "Manage"
Under "Storage", find and click on "Disk Management"
In the right window, do you see your drive?
If you do, then see what the status of it is. Does it show an "Unknown Partition" or "Unpartitioned Space"? (verbiage may be different as I can not pull up that screen). If so, you want to right-click on that partition and delete and/or create it.

If it doesn't show up at all under disk management, try it in a different computer. This will help determine if the problem is with your USB stick or you computer.

Hope this helps.

Here is a link that might be useful: Creating partitions in XP

Im lost,,,I got to the part DO YOU SEE YOUR DRIVE?? I dont know...what would it say?? I am totally illiterate here. The flash drive is new,I have two,and they both just came out of the package. When I plug them in it says my device is installed and ready to use...the thats it. I dont know what to do next...

Ok it says ready to use,,,when I try to, it sys to install removable disk???? HUH??

Sorry. I'm a geek so I tend to explain things in a way that only I understand. It drives my family nuts! Let me try it a different way.

First, with no drives plugged in, double click on "my computer" (or click on start->my computer). In here, you should see your drives listed. Because XP is so flexible in the way it displays drives, there is no way to know exactly what your screen will look like. Still, you should see drives like:
Local Disk (C:\)
CDROM/DVD (D:\)
...and so on.
These are the drives inside your computer box. Remember what these are. It may be easiest to just remember the drive letters, C:\ , D:\ and so on. Now, close "my computer".

Now, plug in a thumb drive into your USB port. After the system says your new hardware is ready to use, open "My Computer" again. At this point, you should see a new drive listed. Again, I can't tell you exactly what YOUR computer will say, but it will be something like "Removable Disk (E:\)". It might say "SanDisk (Q:\)", but that doesn't matter as long as it wasn't there before. This will be your new thumbdrive. Now you double click on it and copy files to it 'til it's full.

I give up. I did all of that and when i go to copy them it says insert disk...aarghhhh!!! Thanks anyway,,Im just a dummy with this.

Lets go very basic.

Plug in your USB Drive.

Click START->MY COMPUTER. You should see your drive show up on the list. Double click on it to open it.

Open up your folder where your pictures are stored (usually under "My Pictures"). Click on the pictures you want to copy. If you have more than one - hold down the control key (CTRL) while you select. If you have a large block of pictures to copy, select the first picture, hold down the shift key and selet the last one - they will all be hightlighted then. Right click and select COPY.

Go back to your drive that you opened (it will be showing on your bottom task bar - click on it) Right click on a blank area and select PASTE.

Your pictures will be pasted onto it.

I know these things can be confusing at first - just go one step at a time.

If you are still lost - post back and I can make some screen shots to help you.

Let me know if you are using XP or VISTA.

Hope This Helps!

Here is from a page I found that may help you. I will include the link as it has a couple of pictures for you:

Copying files to a flash drive on a PC:

1. Open My Computer and see which drives are shown. Most computers, for example, have a hard disk such as a C: drive and a few removable storage devices such as a floppy drive, a CD-ROM drive, and perhaps a zip drive.
2. Insert the flash drive into the USB port and watch to see where the USB flash drive appears. Most will appear as removable storage, but some will instead appear as hard drives. Note the name Windows is using to refer to the flash drive ("Removable Disk (G:)," for example).
3. Open My Documents or the location from which you want to transfer files to the flash drive. Select the files or folders you want to save to the flash drive by left-clicking on them. To select more than one, hold down the CTRL key while you click and select all of the files you wish to save.
4. Right-click on the file(s) or folder(s) you selected, then select Send to, then select the name you saw appearing in My Computer for the flash drive ("Removable Disk (G:)," for example).
5. When the copying is finished, do not immediately remove the flash drive from the USB port. Instead, left-click on the Remove Hardware icon located in the System Tray. A window containing a list of the USB devices will appear. Left-click on the Safely Remove Mass Storage Device line that matches your flash drive (for example, Safely Remove Mass Storage Device - Drive(G:)).
6. When you see the following message appear in the bottom left toolbar, it is, as it says, safe to remove the flash drive from the USB port; you may close the message or ignore it, as it will close itself automatically:

Of course, you want to use the instructions for XP, as that is what you are running. Ignore the Mac stuff.

Here is a link that might be useful: How to Use a USB Flash Drive

lets just try to see if it will work, put the usb drive in your usb port when it says it is ready go to any picture on your pc that you have saved, open that picture on your pc to full size, now RIGHT click directly on the picture itself and you should see SEND TO put your cursor on that and it will list some places you can send it to, one of them should be your flash drive, mine happen to be kingston drives so in mine it says send to kingston, it may have a drive letter instead, whatever it happens to be just click it and tell it to send it there.
Now anytime you are done using your flash drive always go down to the taskbar below the clock and click on the icon that says safely remove, click that and select your flash drive as the one to remove. Always do that! so do that after you have saved the picture to the flash drive.

Now lets see if it worked, plug the flash drive back into the usb port and see if it opens up and asks what you want to do with the files inside, if it did view them. If not then try going back to My computer and seeing if you now see a new drive listed there if so double click on the drive.

I did everything,,,when I get to "send to" it says insert removable disk...I dont think anyone can help...I cant locate the driver...Win xp,no vista

Make sure the drive is not locked. Look for a little switch on it that has a picture of padlock on one end. Make sure the switch is on the OPPOSITE side of the lock.

Take the USB drive out and restart your computer.

When it is up and running, plug the USB Drive back in. Right click on a picture, select Send To and see if the drive shows up on the list.

It is possible you have a defective drive. Can you plug it in to a different port?

I would never recommend using a USB drive as a long term backup for your pictures. They do fail and are easily lost. I prefer an external hard drive for my backups - and I also burn all my pictures to DVD twice a year and store off site.

What is the brand of USB flash drive you are trying to use? I have several , one is a Sandisk Cruzer another is a iLogic and when I insert them they are always assigned a letter name and called removable storage. The other posters are right in telling you to highlight the file you want to put on the drive and right click it and choose Send to. It works like a charm, I am using windows XP professional

It aint gonna work for me. The drive doesnt show up ,anmd again,when I click on a pic and send to, it says to insert removable disk...Im gonna give them to my grandkids..

May be the USB port on the computer is defective. If that is the case , that is why the computer isn't recognizing the thumb drive.

It syas its fine. It says its installed and ready to use. And it works for all other stuff I plug in.