Pen drive hangs explorer

[patkim]

I have a 16 gb pen drive that off lately many a times cause Windows explorer hang for a long time mostly after it's connected or sometimes suddenly while accessing files at random. Explorer eventually recovers from Hang state after about 3 - 4 minutes. Worst case I have to disconnect it hard way and then explorer recovers.

I have run it thru the windows (XP) built in disk checker. Pen drive is about 2 years old.
Is this an indication of failing pen drive and is there any fix etc.
Thanks.

 

[harshilsharma63]

Tried scanning for malware?

 

[Zangetsu]

Do a complete format of pendrive using a good formatting tool

 

[patkim]

Thx friends..seems quick reformat from within windows has worked so far.
So likely it could have been a virus /malware etc and I missed scanning for the same before!