I've seen USB flash drives corrupted. I've seen them infected. I've seen them die. But how often do you find one that just zeros itself? Anyone else ever seen this? From boot-sector to the end. Somewhere between unplugging it at my end, and the Officeworks staff trying to read it on their machine. After repartition/newfs it claims to be a happy trooper, but I'm a natural worrier - now that we know flash-drive firmware can be zapped... My guess is that the probabilities are 1. something other than the USB wiped it; 2. The USB wiped itself; 3. something has reprogrammed the firmware, and wiped the flash incidentally; unless someone else has seen this happen elsewhere, in a more trusted environment. The unit is a Patriot Element 8GB, and has had infrequent use. cheers, Douglas Ray