Unable to view thumbdrives, SD cards

jimmer123 · 12-02-2006, 10:37 PM

After a recent re-install of XP on my dell laptop, I am unable to view removable drives including cameras, thumbdrives, SD cards, etc. They show up in my disk manager and I get the "safely remove ..." icon in my systray. However, they do not show up in "my computer" as explorable drives. I do not receive any errors with drivers or anything, they just don't show up.

Does anybody have any advice? Thanks in advance.

dmitryk · 12-03-2006, 04:51 PM

Do they show up in the Device Manager? Check that USB devices in Device Manager don't have yellow exclamaition mark on them.

jimmer123 · 12-03-2006, 07:15 PM

Hi dmitryk,

They do show up in the device manager and all say that they are working correctly.

I've discovered that devices like MP3 players and PDA's that have specific software are viewable and browsable through their software. I just can't view removable drives through windows explorer.

dmitryk · 12-03-2006, 07:43 PM

Now check Disk Manager ;-) and see if they are in there. What conditions they are and if they have drive letter assigned.

jimmer123 · 12-03-2006, 07:50 PM

They show up there as "healthy" with no drive letter assigned.

dmitryk · 12-03-2006, 08:22 PM

Go ahead and assign letter to them and see if you can access them after that. See if you can use Explorer , My Computer and cmd.exe (comand prompt) to list content of the drives.

jimmer123 · 12-03-2006, 08:35 PM

Hi dmitryk,

After assigning my thumbdrive a letter, I can view it in firefox and IE, but not My Computer. I can navigate the C drive in cmd well enough, but I'm not familiar with viewing alternate drives that way. Thanks.

dmitryk · 12-03-2006, 08:46 PM

Unfortunatly I don't know how to resolve this problem. It is somekind of registry corruption related to Explorer/Automount. I had similar issue with one of our clients... they only thing I could suggest to him is to reinstall Windows fresh.... Sorry. At least we know that nothing wrong with your hardware....

jimmer123 · 12-03-2006, 08:49 PM

That's okay. Thanks for your help Dmitry. :)

**FreoHeaveho** · 12-06-2006, 12:18 PM

Try something for me. Shut down your computer and physically remove the power cord from the machine. Wait 3 minutes or so and then power up again with the usb device in the port.

**Done_Fishin** · 12-06-2006, 01:18 PM

long shot but is the USB enabled in BIOS?

jimmer123 · 12-06-2006, 08:56 PM

Hi guys,

I unplugged it and removed the battery (it's a laptop) for several minutes and after starting it back up with the thumbdrive plugged in I get the same result -- shows up in the disk manager without an assigned drive letter and not browsable. USB is enabled in my BIOS.

Any other suggestions before I just try a complete reinstall? I did try reinstalling my chipset drivers without any luck.

Thanks again for your responses.

**Done_Fishin** · 12-07-2006, 04:21 AM

try a repair install, boot from CD ignore the option to go to repair console, then press F8 for license agreement, when panelcomes up showing your installation, select the installation and press R to repair it.
Maybe it will fix your problem by re-installing the hardware

**FreoHeaveho** · 12-07-2006, 06:38 AM

Make sure Removable storage is enabled in services. Start/Run/type "services.msc" (no quotes).
or you may need to assign a drive letter for your shuffle, find your way to disk management (instructions are somewhere above) and see if you can locate it there, right click and properties and assign letter or some similar.
Hope this helps

**TheMatt** · 12-07-2006, 08:10 PM

Also make sure the following services are Running and are set to Automatic:

Universal Plug and Play Device Host

Plug & Play

jimmer123 · 12-08-2006, 09:54 PM

Hi guys,

Thanks again for the responses. I'm not sure what the problem was, but I've since done a re-install and it is working fine now. I tried the repair route first and it locked up and wouldn't reboot -- really left me with the one option. I had my data backed up, so the only thing I lost was some time.

Thanks again!

**FreoHeaveho** · 12-09-2006, 04:00 AM

Hi Jimmer123,

Glad it worked out. Also glad to see you backup your data! The ocassional fresh install is something I do to, just to speed up the machine and make the whole system fresh again. I put all my os, applications and personal files on seperate hard drives so that i can do the fresh install very easily.

Glad it worked out.

12-02-2006, 10:37 PM	#1 (permalink)
jimmer123 Registered User Join Date: Dec 2006 Posts: 7 OS: xp	Unable to view thumbdrives, SD cards After a recent re-install of XP on my dell laptop, I am unable to view removable drives including cameras, thumbdrives, SD cards, etc. They show up in my disk manager and I get the "safely remove ..." icon in my systray. However, they do not show up in "my computer" as explorable drives. I do not receive any errors with drivers or anything, they just don't show up. Does anybody have any advice? Thanks in advance.

12-03-2006, 04:51 PM	#2 (permalink)
dmitryk Registered User Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Toronto... for now Posts: 76 OS: XP	Do they show up in the Device Manager? Check that USB devices in Device Manager don't have yellow exclamaition mark on them. __________________ Dmitry Kisselev

12-03-2006, 07:43 PM	#4 (permalink)
dmitryk Registered User Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Toronto... for now Posts: 76 OS: XP	Now check Disk Manager ;-) and see if they are in there. What conditions they are and if they have drive letter assigned. __________________ Dmitry Kisselev

12-03-2006, 08:22 PM	#6 (permalink)
dmitryk Registered User Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Toronto... for now Posts: 76 OS: XP	Go ahead and assign letter to them and see if you can access them after that. See if you can use Explorer , My Computer and cmd.exe (comand prompt) to list content of the drives. __________________ Dmitry Kisselev

12-03-2006, 08:46 PM	#8 (permalink)
dmitryk Registered User Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Toronto... for now Posts: 76 OS: XP	Unfortunatly I don't know how to resolve this problem. It is somekind of registry corruption related to Explorer/Automount. I had similar issue with one of our clients... they only thing I could suggest to him is to reinstall Windows fresh.... Sorry. At least we know that nothing wrong with your hardware.... __________________ Dmitry Kisselev

12-03-2006, 07:15 PM	#3 (permalink)
jimmer123 Registered User Join Date: Dec 2006 Posts: 7 OS: xp	Hi dmitryk, They do show up in the device manager and all say that they are working correctly. I've discovered that devices like MP3 players and PDA's that have specific software are viewable and browsable through their software. I just can't view removable drives through windows explorer.

12-03-2006, 07:50 PM	#5 (permalink)
jimmer123 Registered User Join Date: Dec 2006 Posts: 7 OS: xp	They show up there as "healthy" with no drive letter assigned.

12-03-2006, 08:35 PM	#7 (permalink)
jimmer123 Registered User Join Date: Dec 2006 Posts: 7 OS: xp	Hi dmitryk, After assigning my thumbdrive a letter, I can view it in firefox and IE, but not My Computer. I can navigate the C drive in cmd well enough, but I'm not familiar with viewing alternate drives that way. Thanks.

12-03-2006, 08:49 PM	#9 (permalink)
jimmer123 Registered User Join Date: Dec 2006 Posts: 7 OS: xp	That's okay. Thanks for your help Dmitry. :)

12-06-2006, 12:18 PM	#10 (permalink)
FreoHeaveho TSF Enthusiast Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Australia Posts: 3,227 OS: Windows Vista Ultimate 64 SP2, Windows XP Professional SP3, Mac OSX Leopard My System	Try something for me. Shut down your computer and physically remove the power cord from the machine. Wait 3 minutes or so and then power up again with the usb device in the port. __________________ PC Wizard-VGA 2009 Charts-Power Supply Info-Multi/Single Rail PSU?-Speedfan-Driver Sweeper

12-06-2006, 01:18 PM	#11 (permalink)
Done_Fishin Moderator Hardware Team Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Brit living in Greece Posts: 7,526 OS: WinME, WinXP Pro SP3, Win7 Beta, Ubuntu 9.04 & Netbook Remix & CD2USB, Mepis 6.5, Fedora 10 My System	long shot but is the USB enabled in BIOS? __________________ . . I'm not old!! I'm age impaired .. D_F I DON'T PLAY GAMES How to mark your thread as solved HDD DIAG UTILS TSF's Photographer's Corner

12-06-2006, 08:56 PM	#12 (permalink)
jimmer123 Registered User Join Date: Dec 2006 Posts: 7 OS: xp	Hi guys, I unplugged it and removed the battery (it's a laptop) for several minutes and after starting it back up with the thumbdrive plugged in I get the same result -- shows up in the disk manager without an assigned drive letter and not browsable. USB is enabled in my BIOS. Any other suggestions before I just try a complete reinstall? I did try reinstalling my chipset drivers without any luck. Thanks again for your responses.

12-07-2006, 04:21 AM	#13 (permalink)
Done_Fishin Moderator Hardware Team Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Brit living in Greece Posts: 7,526 OS: WinME, WinXP Pro SP3, Win7 Beta, Ubuntu 9.04 & Netbook Remix & CD2USB, Mepis 6.5, Fedora 10 My System	try a repair install, boot from CD ignore the option to go to repair console, then press F8 for license agreement, when panelcomes up showing your installation, select the installation and press R to repair it. Maybe it will fix your problem by re-installing the hardware __________________ . . I'm not old!! I'm age impaired .. D_F I DON'T PLAY GAMES How to mark your thread as solved HDD DIAG UTILS TSF's Photographer's Corner

12-07-2006, 06:38 AM	#14 (permalink)
FreoHeaveho TSF Enthusiast Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Australia Posts: 3,227 OS: Windows Vista Ultimate 64 SP2, Windows XP Professional SP3, Mac OSX Leopard My System	Make sure Removable storage is enabled in services. Start/Run/type "services.msc" (no quotes). or you may need to assign a drive letter for your shuffle, find your way to disk management (instructions are somewhere above) and see if you can locate it there, right click and properties and assign letter or some similar. Hope this helps __________________ PC Wizard-VGA 2009 Charts-Power Supply Info-Multi/Single Rail PSU?-Speedfan-Driver Sweeper

12-07-2006, 08:10 PM	#15 (permalink)
TheMatt TSF Enthusiast Join Date: May 2006 Location: Boston Posts: 13,701 OS: Win 3.1, 98, NT 4.0, XP Debian 4.0, Kubuntu 6.06 My System Blog Entries: 3	Also make sure the following services are Running and are set to Automatic: Universal Plug and Play Device Host Plug & Play __________________ - Matt M - KB1OSC - Folding@Home 85015 [url="http://www.techsupportforum.com/hardware-support/"] If TSF has helped you, please consider donating. If I have stopped responding to a thread, feel free to send me a PM with a link to the thread. It is advisable to subscribe to threads so you will receive updates when replies are posted. You can subscribe to threads from the "Thread Tools" Menu. »Memtest86 »Prime95 »UBCD »SpeedFan »NHC Personal »Everest »Sandra »PC Wizard »RivaTuner »ATi Tool Click here for Useful Articles and Guides

12-08-2006, 09:54 PM	#16 (permalink)
jimmer123 Registered User Join Date: Dec 2006 Posts: 7 OS: xp	Hi guys, Thanks again for the responses. I'm not sure what the problem was, but I've since done a re-install and it is working fine now. I tried the repair route first and it locked up and wouldn't reboot -- really left me with the one option. I had my data backed up, so the only thing I lost was some time. Thanks again!

12-09-2006, 04:00 AM	#17 (permalink)
FreoHeaveho TSF Enthusiast Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Australia Posts: 3,227 OS: Windows Vista Ultimate 64 SP2, Windows XP Professional SP3, Mac OSX Leopard My System	Hi Jimmer123, Glad it worked out. Also glad to see you backup your data! The ocassional fresh install is something I do to, just to speed up the machine and make the whole system fresh again. I put all my os, applications and personal files on seperate hard drives so that i can do the fresh install very easily. Glad it worked out. __________________ PC Wizard-VGA 2009 Charts-Power Supply Info-Multi/Single Rail PSU?-Speedfan-Driver Sweeper