RiceyRice
asked on
USB Drive shows up in Device manager, not in explorer
I have a pretty standard USB flash drive, 1GB, that when plugged into a WinXP PC will show up in Device manager and Disk Management, but will not "mount" to My Computer. The drive works perfectly in other machines, and other drives do not work in this PC.
What I have tried:
creating a new partition on the drive, and letting windows create the new partition.
Uninstall and reinstall all the USB controller drivers.
I have already searched the daylights out of this site.
I realize I am probably looking at reload city, just wondering if anyone had anything clever. Full points to the right solution. I'll split 2 ways for suggestions.
What I have tried:
creating a new partition on the drive, and letting windows create the new partition.
Uninstall and reinstall all the USB controller drivers.
I have already searched the daylights out of this site.
I realize I am probably looking at reload city, just wondering if anyone had anything clever. Full points to the right solution. I'll split 2 ways for suggestions.
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Ricey,
Sometimes the usb support for your specific motherboard may need a bios update. Go to your manufacturer's website to verify. I've seen a few computers where this was the case.
I've also had a few where I had to install an inexpensive PCI USB2 card and plug the usb device into that. In those cases, everything worked much better. Note, that's also a lot easier than "reload city", so don't give up!
Sometimes the usb support for your specific motherboard may need a bios update. Go to your manufacturer's website to verify. I've seen a few computers where this was the case.
I've also had a few where I had to install an inexpensive PCI USB2 card and plug the usb device into that. In those cases, everything worked much better. Note, that's also a lot easier than "reload city", so don't give up!
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UPDATE:
No dice....assigning a drive letter results in Disk Managament showing the letter, but still not in explorer. The drive has worked in the past on this PC.
I like the idea of throwing a new USB card also, but this is my work PC and they frown on that type of thing.
The registry did have some extra letters under Mounted Devices, which I eliminated to no avail.
In disk management, the parttition shows but no volume. When I try to force a format it comes back saying
"the operation could not complete because the volume or partition is disabled. Restart the computer to re-enable the volume."
Of course I followed the advice, no good.
I did have emulation software (Nero Image Drive) but uninstalled to see if it was affecting...it didn't seem to affect it, besides the virtual drive letter was way down at z:, far lower than the potential letters for this one.
A real headbanger... (as in against the wall!!)
No dice....assigning a drive letter results in Disk Managament showing the letter, but still not in explorer. The drive has worked in the past on this PC.
I like the idea of throwing a new USB card also, but this is my work PC and they frown on that type of thing.
The registry did have some extra letters under Mounted Devices, which I eliminated to no avail.
In disk management, the parttition shows but no volume. When I try to force a format it comes back saying
"the operation could not complete because the volume or partition is disabled. Restart the computer to re-enable the volume."
Of course I followed the advice, no good.
I did have emulation software (Nero Image Drive) but uninstalled to see if it was affecting...it didn't seem to affect it, besides the virtual drive letter was way down at z:, far lower than the potential letters for this one.
A real headbanger... (as in against the wall!!)
Have you check group policy? If you're not the admin at work, check with him/her to see if they've disabled temp drives. It's always a possibility.
I just remembered something I did on a customer computer a while back. I put a hub on the computer, then plugged the flaky drive and printer into it, and everything started working again. So, I put a bigger power supply in the case, removed the hub, and viola!, everything worked like it should. It could be that the power supply in your system is getting weak or is just too small (seems to be the way of the majors) and can't provide enough power to the MB and consequently USB buss/ports, so offloading the power requirements to a hub might just be the ticket.
I just remembered something I did on a customer computer a while back. I put a hub on the computer, then plugged the flaky drive and printer into it, and everything started working again. So, I put a bigger power supply in the case, removed the hub, and viola!, everything worked like it should. It could be that the power supply in your system is getting weak or is just too small (seems to be the way of the majors) and can't provide enough power to the MB and consequently USB buss/ports, so offloading the power requirements to a hub might just be the ticket.
ASKER
Still no dice. Reload it is. No biggie, our images go on in about 5 minutes. Thanks everyone for the input. i think it is just a case of Windows being too far gone.
ASKER