USB flash disks not getting drive letter
Hi all,
From last two weeks whenever I insert a USB flash disk into my laptop it doesnot show up in the "My Computer". It connects properly and makes the connection sound and the green "Safely remove USB mass storage" icon appears in the Notification area. Also in the Device Manager under "Universal Serial Bus Controllers" I can see the USB mass storage device but without any drive letter assignment.
Diagnostic Steps taken so far:
1) Checked the USB device on other PC and it is working fine so my USB flash disk is fine.
2) Checked other USB flash disk on my laptop and it is also not recognized. (So problem is in my laptop)
3) Booted using Hiren's Boot CD/Bart PE and the USB flash disk is working fine there. ( No hardware problem in USB host controller)
So the problem seems to be in Windows. Next I googled a bit and found the following suggestions
1) Delete drivers for the "universal host controller" and "Enhanced Universal host controller" and let windows re-install them. This had no effect.
2) Assign a new Drive letter to the USB device using the Computer Management | Device Management. But I cant see any USB device in the Device management. I can only see the DVD-Drive even when the USB is connected.
3) SPTD.SYS driver problem with Daemon tools. I have used the utility given on the website of daemon tools but nothing has changed.
4) Mapped Network Drive conflict. I have not Mapped any Network drive and when I click on the "Disconnect Network Drive" I get "You have no Drive to disconnect".
5) Using USBDLM utility from http://www.uwe-sieber.de/usbdlm_e.html but no effect.
So now I have run out of ideas. The only idea left is to re-install windows. Can anyone guide me in the right direction?
OS Windows XP SP3
Thinkpad T42P laptop
From last two weeks whenever I insert a USB flash disk into my laptop it doesnot show up in the "My Computer". It connects properly and makes the connection sound and the green "Safely remove USB mass storage" icon appears in the Notification area. Also in the Device Manager under "Universal Serial Bus Controllers" I can see the USB mass storage device but without any drive letter assignment.
Diagnostic Steps taken so far:
1) Checked the USB device on other PC and it is working fine so my USB flash disk is fine.
2) Checked other USB flash disk on my laptop and it is also not recognized. (So problem is in my laptop)
3) Booted using Hiren's Boot CD/Bart PE and the USB flash disk is working fine there. ( No hardware problem in USB host controller)
So the problem seems to be in Windows. Next I googled a bit and found the following suggestions
1) Delete drivers for the "universal host controller" and "Enhanced Universal host controller" and let windows re-install them. This had no effect.
2) Assign a new Drive letter to the USB device using the Computer Management | Device Management. But I cant see any USB device in the Device management. I can only see the DVD-Drive even when the USB is connected.
3) SPTD.SYS driver problem with Daemon tools. I have used the utility given on the website of daemon tools but nothing has changed.
4) Mapped Network Drive conflict. I have not Mapped any Network drive and when I click on the "Disconnect Network Drive" I get "You have no Drive to disconnect".
5) Using USBDLM utility from http://www.uwe-sieber.de/usbdlm_e.html but no effect.
So now I have run out of ideas. The only idea left is to re-install windows. Can anyone guide me in the right direction?
OS Windows XP SP3
Thinkpad T42P laptop
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I can see the following for F: (which is the drive my USB disk usually got assigned)
\.?.?.\.
S.T.O.R.
A.G.E.#.
R.e.m.o.
v.a.b.l.
e.M.e.d.
i.a.#
and so on.....
I have renamed it to point to H: which is of course free but the problem persists..... So it seems that this is not the problem.
Other entries there are
\DosDevices\C: (This is my C drive partition)
\DosDevices\D: (This is my D drive partition)
\DosDevices\E: (This is my CD/DVD drive)
\DosDevices\G: (This is a virtual drive created using daemon tools)
\DosDevices\H: (This is the Storage Removable device which earlier was F:)
\.?.?.\.
S.T.O.R.
A.G.E.#.
R.e.m.o.
v.a.b.l.
e.M.e.d.
i.a.#
and so on.....
I have renamed it to point to H: which is of course free but the problem persists..... So it seems that this is not the problem.
Other entries there are
\DosDevices\C: (This is my C drive partition)
\DosDevices\D: (This is my D drive partition)
\DosDevices\E: (This is my CD/DVD drive)
\DosDevices\G: (This is a virtual drive created using daemon tools)
\DosDevices\H: (This is the Storage Removable device which earlier was F:)
ASKER
also there is another folder in the registry by the name of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SYSTEM/
There is no entry for F: or H: in this folder. Can this be a problem?
There is no entry for F: or H: in this folder. Can this be a problem?
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Yes, it can be a potential problem. Add if you can.
To test, rather use a drive letter such as R.
To test, rather use a drive letter such as R.
ASKER
No I donot have or ever had Acronis True Image installed....
I have tested using the drive letter R but to no avail....
also I have created an entry for it in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SYSTEM/
I have tested using the drive letter R but to no avail....
also I have created an entry for it in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SYSTEM/
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>>check if the usb devices show up in disk management
No I cant see the USB device in the disk management. I can only see the DVD drive over there.....
>>removable storage service
It was set to auto and not started. I started it but to no avail.
>>Universal Serial Bus>right click each root hub, and select Properties>Power Management, and uncheck "Allow
>>Windows to turn off this device to save power".
Done but still no success.
>>In c:\windows\inf, look for usbstor.inf
It was there and I again installed it but to no avail....
>>See if the device pops up anywhere. If it does, uninstall the device and let Windows reload it.
I have done this several times. When I insert the USB device after uninstalling the driver the notification area shows "Found new hardware" and then "Kingston G2 Traveller" and then "Disk drive" and after that "Your new hardware has finished installation and is ready to be used" or something like that.
Also when I view the hidden devices I can see an entry for the USB in the Storage Volumes section by the name of Generic Volume.
No I cant see the USB device in the disk management. I can only see the DVD drive over there.....
>>removable storage service
It was set to auto and not started. I started it but to no avail.
>>Universal Serial Bus>right click each root hub, and select Properties>Power Management, and uncheck "Allow
>>Windows to turn off this device to save power".
Done but still no success.
>>In c:\windows\inf, look for usbstor.inf
It was there and I again installed it but to no avail....
>>See if the device pops up anywhere. If it does, uninstall the device and let Windows reload it.
I have done this several times. When I insert the USB device after uninstalling the driver the notification area shows "Found new hardware" and then "Kingston G2 Traveller" and then "Disk drive" and after that "Your new hardware has finished installation and is ready to be used" or something like that.
Also when I view the hidden devices I can see an entry for the USB in the Storage Volumes section by the name of Generic Volume.
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Now I have copied it from another PC (windows XP SP3) and installed it. But still nothing shows up...
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Tried all of the options suggested above but still my USB stick cant get detected.
It seems that re-installing windows is the only option left.....
It seems that re-installing windows is the only option left.....
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Now suddenly my USB has started working..... I dont know how but it has......
did you install software; or an upgrade ?
ASKER
No I didnot installed any new software... My Windows and IBM updates are scheduled automatically so I dont know if any new update has corrected the problem.
that can be; so - good luck with it !
ASKER