I was running knoppix v.3.7 within windows with VMware. With kernel 2.4. I wanted to set up a permanent home on my usb flash drive so i used the wizard to format the drive with a linux file system, (ext-3 or something?) and put the right files onto the disk. I then tried to restart the virtual machine, and use the flash drive as a permanent home using the cheatcode: home=scan. If i boot the virtual machine with the memory key inserted, the bootup stalls on "Scanning for Harddisk partitions and creating /etc/fstab...
If i insert the drive after booting up, knoppix does not recognize the presence of the drive.

Now, in windows XP, if i insert the drive, it takes about 30 seconds to recognize it. If i try to access the drive from my computer it gives the error: "Drive is not formatted, format now?" after about 2 minutes of stalling. If i click Format, then it says, "Drive cannot be formatted".
If i try to format the drive from the command prompt, i get the error: "Error in IOCTL call"

Does anyone know whats going on?? I don't want to lose my flash drive.

p.s. its a Sandisk Cruzer mini 256 mb drive.