[Rickertsen2]

can you open a connection to the robot in hyperterminal and view the output from printf statements without the thumb drive? You will need to set the settings to:
115.2K baud
data bits: 8
parity: none
stop bits: 1
flow control : none

If you can do this then you know it is an ifiloader problem and not something stranger.

What model is you laptop? I have a suspicion that maybie you do not have a "normal" serial port.

I think eko's explanation is the most likely