cherokee1111

ok, disk management sees the usb mass storage device, I assign a letter and still cant see it in My Computer, pull out the key and the pc does the DAH! DAH! noise. SO, it sees it, it def has it in disk management, its def in safely remove hardware but I cant see the fooker anywhere to open it.

P.S if i put it in again and go to disc management it wants to assign another letter and the letter I already assigned isnt in the drop down anymore!!

help please, am I going MAD

cherokee1111

anyone? seems like this issue is different to the others and no-one has experience of it nor a solution

Mountainman1863

Cherokee, this is exactly what I see here.

Solutions I've found; NONE

Workarounds I've found:
1) Instead of using My Computer, use Windows Explorer. Sometimes this has brought up the removable USB drive, but not always.

2) In Disk Management (after inserting the drive), under Action hit 'Rescan Disks', then when the drive is visible in the graphic pane, right click on the drive's image, selecting 'Change Drive Letter and Paths'.
Select the default letter, as the original drive letter is not available, I do not know why. Gotta be a programming error or likely a corrupt file--they corrupt so easily, you know.
Then after a few seconds, you can right click on the USB drive image, either in the list or the graphic pane, and select either 'Open' or 'Explore'. Try both if the first one doesn't work. May just need more time for drive to be scanned and recognized.
Next time you will have to do the same, as nothing done here will stick.

3) Ask Microsoft for a permanent fix or explore the K. B. Good luck there.

I've rebuilt the USB drivers etc, described in a prev msg here, but that produced no permanent fix. Stopping/restarting the 'Logical Disk Manager' in 'Services' has not helped either; the LDM is controlled by Disk Management, I believe.

Hope it works for you, and someone offers a good solution.

cherokee1111

thanks mountain, looks like I have beaten MS with an UNFIXABLE error in their software.

Maybe a re-install of win xp will do it but I am terrified as I have no idea how to do that and need a noddies guide of do's and dont's to step me thru it.

does anyone know a link for this?

thanks

Mountainman1863

The workaround is not too bad, and may not be worth reinstalling the OS just for this.

I stopped looking for a solution when it first occurred almost a year ago, but necessity took over and I tried a bunch of things and read a lot until this approach worked. I even joined this site. By the way I see it as MS has beaten us, but I found a backdoor.

cherokee1111

cheers mate, workaround number 2 works but why oh why do I have to do this EVERY time I insert a usb key....Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

appreciate your thoughts and help, personally I BEAT MS as I have something in my PC they cant fix muhahahaha

cherokee1111

hey guys I found the answer and ALL the usb keys are seen and recognized and assigned drive letters automatically, ahhhh result, thank goodness

ken1212

Have A Similar Problem With Usb Drives.
Plug Camera Or Card Reader Into Machine, Recocgnises Them And Gives Them A Drive Letter But Will Not Let Me Access Them.
What Was Your Cure

Mountainman1863

Cherokee, you're not just gonna keep the full solution to yourself, are you?

cherokee1111

not the best solution but only took a couple of hours to re-install windows, now everything works as you cant go thru a PC's life without the USB keys.

ken1212

iF YOU REINSTALL XP DO YOU LOSE ALL YOUR INFO

cherokee1111

well yes, but back it up to a DVD or external hard drive first, plus you can save all settings etc with windows handy transfer toiol so its all easy, you WILL have to re-install actual programmes/games though