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: 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. 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). 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. 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). 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:)). 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

That sounds good, as it would mean only one click was necessary to display the contents of the thumb drive. But how can I set WE to a default that represents the thumb drive? It won't show a thumb drive at all--much less its contents--unless there is actually a thumb drive in a USB port. The problem is probably that I don't understand how to set WE to start with the "C: root directory." My WE always comes up with a listing to the left that starts with Favorites, Libraries, etc., and C: is a bit down the list. I never used WE (from the Start button) much and have just realized that it is apparently the same thing as "My Computer," which I have been double-clicking on for a connection to the thumb drive. If I click on WE, which I do have pinned to the taskbar, and then one more click on the name of the thumb drive, that's two clicks to see the contents of the drive. One less click than if I click on the My Computer icon on my desktop. So thanks to you, I now only have to make two clicks, instead of three. Perhaps that is the fewest clicks I can hope for. Granted, the old autorun way only required one click, so I would only be saving one click anyway; but hubby and I are translators who both work on the same job, so we are constantly swapping thumb drives back and forth, and it gets old going through a series of clicks every time. If I had never known the convenience of autorun, I would be taking things in their stride and not be complaining.

We have 3 computers, 2 HPs and 1 Compaq. All have WindowsXP and all are P4 with about the same amout of RAM memory. The flash is a 16gb USB and worked fine for several weeks. Now it will only work on the Compaq. I reformatted it to FAT 32 and still only works on the Compaq. Thanks for any replies and suggestions.

each thumb flash drive will say what it holds for example it might hold 4 gig or 8 gig or less or more. It depends on what type files you will be storing, picture and video files are very large so will take up much more room than just text or document files. go to the folder of the files you want to backup to the thumb drive and right click on it and choose properties it will tell you exactly how much is contained in that folder so you would know you need a flash drive that is big enough to hold that much at least. I think 4 gig is a nice size and they are fairly inexpensive. I buy 4 gig Kingston drives at Big Lots all the time for $12. You can buy them at walmart, best buy, or any stores that sell electronics and computer stuff. I stick with the name brand ones like Kingston, San disk, corsair etc. Here is the link to some over at buy.com Results Within Our Stores general guide for using one Overview of How to use a USB Flash Drive