Page 1 of usb 2.0 flash drive faulty?

Mate shot his new usb pen drive at me other night said here try that on your pc i cant get it to work >:( .
Anyway its a usb 2.0 256mb pen drive oem no make on it when i plug it in to my pc pc bleep as usualy pc device sounds does not show the drive?.Ive looked in control panel and new hardware it lists it and says its working properly ive tried it in my laptop too with same results it has a password switch on the sikde of the stick too but ive tried switching it side to side etc but no difference is it dead?

i had similar trouble with one, it proved to be down to me having another mapped drive with the same Drive letter that the Pen Drive wanted to use. It didnt seem to just use another one..........