I don't know much about how USB key drives work, but I notice that some of them can be made bootable to start any host, some only work on some hosts, while some never work at all.
To investigate, I'd like to check the manufacturer and precise model for the different USB key drives that I have. However, for one of them, Speccy only returns "Flash Drive USB Device", which isn't very helpful.
Is there a utility for Windows that can analyse USB key drives and return useful technical information on them?
Here's what Windows XP's Device Manager returns that could help identify the manufacturer + model:
Device Manager→Disk Drives→(USB key drive)→ right-click →Properties→Details:
Bus Relations:STORAGE\RemovableMedia\7&11d2d56e&0&RMDevice Instance Id:USBSTOR\DISK&VEN_&PROD_FLASH_DRIVE&REV_5.00\CCCBB9999003615&0Hardware Ids:USBSTOR\Disk________Flash_Drive_____5.00USBSTOR\Disk________Flash_Drive_____USBSTOR\Disk________USBSTOR\________Flash_Drive_____5________Flash_Drive_____5USBSTOR\GenDiskGenDisk
Microsoft's DevCon returns useful information, although it's still isn't any guarantee that a no-brand USB key drive can be identified. I'll read more about how to check if a USB key drive can be made bootable reliably.