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shopjd

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usb mass storage device

windows xp computer no longer recognizes usb mass storage device

finished cleaning out viruses / spyware

when stick in usb drive, makes a noise through the speaker
but under "device manager"  usb drive is called "mass storage device"

do I need to download a driver
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Thickman

Do you have any network drives mapped?  Let's say you have a PC with a HDD (c:) and a CD drive (d:).
If you have a network drive mapped to (e:), when you plug in your USB drive, it will try to assign the drive letter as (d:).  You can fix this by either changing your network drive letter to something else, or reassigning your USB drive a different drive letter.
does the drive show up if you shut down then boot back up with it plugged in.
Ct
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ASKER

in the past, on this same computer
it was called the e drive

how could I map it to a different letter

also trying to restart with the usb drive in the usb
does the drive show up under disk managment ?
CT
What happens if you try to put that USB mass storage device into another USB physical port on your system.?
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test the drive first on another pc, to be sure if it is bad or not.
if it is ok -  post back to try other fixes
To map the drive to a different letter, right-click on "My computer" and select "manage."  Next, click on "Disk Management."  If your USB drive is listed there, right-click on it and select "Change Drive Letter and Paths..."  From there you may select and free drive letter available.  However, if your usb drive is not listed there, you may have a different problem than you thought.  If this is the case, I suggest running Malwarebytes Anti-Malware, rebooting, and then trying the USB drive again.  Best of luck to you.
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ASKER

thickman
used malware anti-malware:   thanks

usb flash drive still not listed as any letter drive
tried on every usb
tried on another computer and it works
>>  tried on another computer and it works   <<  ok , so it is your pc soft; try these  (one at a time) and test :

Remove old hardware devices :
go to Start>right click My computer>properties>device manager
in the view tab - click : "show hidden devices"
inspect  device manager for all hidden devices, and remove them

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/925196

OR :
Remove all USB drivers with:     https://filedb.experts-exchange.com/incoming/ee-stuff/6853-RENEWUSB.zip      ---> Now reboot and test.
Delete the "UpperFilters" and "LowerFilters" registry values from:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{36FC9E60-C465-11CF-8056-444553540000}

you can also reset the usb :
rundll32.exe setupapi,InstallHinfSection DefaultInstall 132 C:\WINDOWS\inf\usbstor.inf
rundll32.exe setupapi,InstallHinfSection DefaultInstall 132 C:\WINDOWS\inf\usb.inf
rundll32.exe setupapi,InstallHinfSection DefaultInstall 132 C:\WINDOWS\inf\usbport.inf
rundll32.exe setupapi,InstallHinfSection DefaultInstall 132 C:\WINDOWS\inf\usbprint.inf
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BillDL
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Thank you shopjd
I had the exact same problem with a PNY Attache 1GB flash drive on Windows XP Professional SP2. It turns out that the USBSTOR.INF file was missing from my C:\windows\inf directory. I got that file from my Windows XP installation CD by opening a DOS command window and changing to the i386 directory on my CD drive. Then I ran EXPAND.EXE to de-compress the file I needed. The syntax I used is below (this assumes that your CD drive is drive letter D).

Start > Run
CMD (then press OK)
**command window should open**
D:
cd i386
expand.exe -r USBSTOR.IN_ c:\windows\inf

Then I rebooted and tried plugging in the flash drive again. It worked perfectly. No telling why my USBSTOR.INF file was missing...