ozwes007
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USB Size Issues
Hi Guys, heres a curly one thats got me stumped- I have an Acer Altos MK11 machine running XP Pro and have been backing up using external drives on it for close 2 18months. The problem is that now it refuses to recognize the drives or any external usb drive over 512mb(may just be a red herring). I have checked the current draw and the greater draw is on the older smaller drives, so rulling out power as an issue. The smaller drives are using FAT (that read and install properly)while the larger ones are using FAT32 and NTFS( is this relavant). Any one have any ideas - not including reinstalling the Op system. All USB ports are giving me the same problem...
Have you tried rebooting?
ASKER
USB devices work fine in other systems and the system has been rebooted
Have you check the Computer Manager to see if the drives are getting added but maybe you're just not getting a drive letter?
Right click on My Computer and click Manage. Go to Disk Management. Install the USB drive and refresh the view and see if it pops up. Sometimes those drives get mapped to drive letters that are already mapped to Network Drives and it makes it "look" like they're not accessible. In that case you have to disconnect the network drive.
Right click on My Computer and click Manage. Go to Disk Management. Install the USB drive and refresh the view and see if it pops up. Sometimes those drives get mapped to drive letters that are already mapped to Network Drives and it makes it "look" like they're not accessible. In that case you have to disconnect the network drive.
ASKER
USB devices are added then taken out then added - basically nothing shows up then it blips up as being loaded then drops out again. the drives are not mapped. Once again this only occurs on the larger drives and other than FAT drives.
With it plugged in, go into Device manager (Right click My Computer -> Properties -> Hardware Tab -> Device Manager) and see if there is any unknown hardware (which might be the drive). right click and choose Uninstall. If the actual drive is in there, try to uninstall the driver for it. Then unplug the USB and reinsert USB to get it to hopefully reinstall the drivers.
ASKER
No unknown hardware, the issue is it refuses to install the usb devices if they are over 512MB or Fat file system. Even in safe mode the devices have been removed that are not installed and there are no references to the specific drives. It appears to be (only guessing here) that for some reason a registry key may have been added or changed somehow that doesn't allow certain usb sizes or files systems - can't find any reference to it in the reg but maybe?
ASKER
will get onto it on Monday and let you know.
In c:\windows\inf, look for usbstor.inf - If it is not there, you can copy it from another PC..When you find it, right click it and select Install
ASKER
Well ran all the above suggestions and still the problem persists. The drives are still being found then installed then dropping out then finding etc etc, This is really driving me nuts. Anyone have an idea if AV software or something like that could cause this sort of problem, issue.
if it is recent, you can try a system restore to a prior date; that would correct all recent installs that are the cause
ASKER
Unfortunately, before I got to the system this was tried by a user and they stuffed the restore points.
Joys of IT
Joys of IT
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Hi Nobus, I don't think there is an issue with the usb being not set to auto as the devices are found installed then taken out straight away. The only devices this doesn't happen to are the smaller <= 1gb usb drives.
The system finds the drives loads them and then spits them out only to reload them, spit them out etc etc.
It is like something is not allowing the files system to load on these drives.
The system finds the drives loads them and then spits them out only to reload them, spit them out etc etc.
It is like something is not allowing the files system to load on these drives.
then it looks like some software is causing it
try to disable all programs at startup with msconfig
try to disable all programs at startup with msconfig
ASKER
Just ran a new system up on another drive to check the system and the same thing occurs, I don't know how or why but it seems like its the motherboard - still don't understand why it will load smaller drives and not larger???? any one had this before?
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Hate to be a cold shower but all the above has been tried and still the problem persists. Bios has not been altered between the backed up, identical hdd that was made when the system was first built(tested and run perfectly previously) so no updates, software etc was added to this from the initial tests.- only conclusion left is the Motherboard is kaput...... Don't know why or how but its doesn't work know did then....
just for fun, try this one too it's very good for solving usb problems, and you can ask the maker for help even :
http://safelyremove.com/?pid=1
http://safelyremove.com/?pid=1
ASKER
Well just a follow up - changed the motherboard and the system works fine, recognises big and small drives again. Seems there are issues with the board, it's a Gigabyte Board.
you can still tets if the usb works normal from a Knoppix cd (supports USB) :
ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/dist/knoppix/KNOPPIX_V6.0.1CD-2009-02-08-EN.iso
ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/dist/knoppix/KNOPPIX_V6.0.1CD-2009-02-08-EN.iso
ASKER
All Accepted solutions led to the answer - the motherboard Fault.
also it's best to use NTFS instead of fat or fat 32 because of it's file and partition size restrictions.
if you have the option, you may want to try reformatting one to NTFS then trying a backup to it.