Question: Ubuntu 10.04 With Gnome

Every time Ubuntu goes to the screensaver and I unlock it, Firefox won't let me type anything. I can move the mouse and type in other programs... just not in Firefox. If I quit Firefox and reopen it again, I can type in it. 

My keyboard connection is PS/2. Sounds buggish? 

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Update #1 - Hmm... this time around, I just waited for a minute and it appeared to return to normal. I still think it's a bug but at least it's not as bad as I originally thought.

Answer: 
In either Windows or OS X verify the partition information for the drive.

**In Windows 7:**

* Right Click "Computer" and then click on "Manage".
* Once the Computer Management window opens select Disk Management from under the "Storage" header.
* This should show you the partition information for any connected drives. It will be good to note if it shows the full size of the drive being used.

**In OS X:**

* Open Applications folder in Finder and go to the Utilities directory and open Disk Utility (or press CMD+Space and type in Disk Utility to open it from Spotlight).
* Select the USB connected drive and you should see the partition information here as well.

Verifying that the partition information is correct will help determine the next step.

If you are expecting there to be files and they aren't appearing, you can try to use the Windows software [Recuva](http://www.piriform.com/recuva) to recover files. If you aren't missing data but just working out a drive space issue, then reformatting/repartitioning the drive should help get your space back to normal. Formatting and partitioning can be done from either of the previously mentioned programs (Computer Management -> Disk Management in Win7/WinXP or Disk Utility in OS X).
1. Your missing files, probably a damaged table from a poorly timed dismount. 
My suggestion: use a data carving tool to recover the data off the drive.
PC inspector is free and I've used it before:
<http://www.snapfiles.com/get/pcinspector.html>
Alternatively you can obtain something more powerful like AccessData.
2. Recovering that lost space.
once your data is recovered and off the drive...
blow the drive away.
quick and easy:
click start, right click my computer, click manage, click disk manager, click your usb drive, delete the partitions, create a new partition using 100% of the space.
3. Keep it from happening again.
Kinda vague on my instructions here, but basically you right click that new volume on your usb disk, properties of it and there should be a tab that is unique to USB removable drives. That tab has some options to basically "make this volume run faster- but there will be he11 to pay for yanking it out" - you are going to click the one that says "Run a little slower but be prepared to be randomly ejected from the computer".

Also, it wouldn't hurt to run one of those check disk tools against it to make sure the physical disk wasn't the cause of the problem.