On my Dell Inspiron 8500 (Windows XP Pro, SP2), I've recently begun experiencing an annoyance.
When I plug my SanDisk 512Mb flash drive into one of the USB ports on the docking adaptor, Windows pops up a window saying:
The disk or device contains more than one type of content. What do you want Windows to do?
I want it to "Do Nothing", and I've told it this in the past. (It appears that my I8500 has "forgotten", as up to about three days ago, it "Did Nothing".)
On other systems where I used the flash drive, this dialog window has a "Don't ask me this again" check box, but for some reason the check box doesn't appear on my I8500. (I'm almost sure it did in the past, and I checked the "Don't ask me again" message.)
Any ideas? As I said in the subject, this isn't really a problem, but it is rather annoying.
It's actually quite logical - even if annoying - when you understand that every time you plug in a USB or 1394 device, Windows treats it like new hardware and tries to configure it. When you unplug the device, Windows has no way of knowing if you're ever going to plug it in again.
Given the relatively recent proliferation of USB and 1394 storage devices, perhaps Vista will ship with a way to deal more efficiently with this type of hardware.
-- Ted Zieglar "You can do it if you try."
"Bob Pownall" <repown...@netscape.net> wrote in message
> On my Dell Inspiron 8500 (Windows XP Pro, SP2), I've recently begun > experiencing an annoyance.
> When I plug my SanDisk 512Mb flash drive into one of the USB ports on > the docking adaptor, Windows pops up a window saying:
> The disk or device contains more than one type of content. > What do you want Windows to do?
> I want it to "Do Nothing", and I've told it this in the past. (It > appears that my I8500 has "forgotten", as up to about three days ago, it > "Did Nothing".)
> On other systems where I used the flash drive, this dialog window has a > "Don't ask me this again" check box, but for some reason the check box > doesn't appear on my I8500. (I'm almost sure it did in the past, and I > checked the "Don't ask me again" message.)
> Any ideas? As I said in the subject, this isn't really a problem, but > it is rather annoying.
Actually, I don't believe that is quite true. If you plug a USB storage device in the SAME port, it should NOT cause this problem. Only when you put it in a NEW port should this happen. Windows remembers devices that have been inserted in that port before.
Tom
"Ted Zieglar" <ted...@notmail.com> wrote in message
> It's actually quite logical - even if annoying - when you understand that > every time you plug in a USB or 1394 device, Windows treats it like new > hardware and tries to configure it. When you unplug the device, Windows > has > no way of knowing if you're ever going to plug it in again.
> Given the relatively recent proliferation of USB and 1394 storage devices, > perhaps Vista will ship with a way to deal more efficiently with this type > of hardware.
> -- > Ted Zieglar > "You can do it if you try."
> "Bob Pownall" <repown...@netscape.net> wrote in message > news:11q5lm8d496vaf4@corp.supernews.com... >> On my Dell Inspiron 8500 (Windows XP Pro, SP2), I've recently begun >> experiencing an annoyance.
>> When I plug my SanDisk 512Mb flash drive into one of the USB ports on >> the docking adaptor, Windows pops up a window saying:
>> The disk or device contains more than one type of content. >> What do you want Windows to do?
>> I want it to "Do Nothing", and I've told it this in the past. (It >> appears that my I8500 has "forgotten", as up to about three days ago, it >> "Did Nothing".)
>> On other systems where I used the flash drive, this dialog window has a >> "Don't ask me this again" check box, but for some reason the check box >> doesn't appear on my I8500. (I'm almost sure it did in the past, and I >> checked the "Don't ask me again" message.)
>> Any ideas? As I said in the subject, this isn't really a problem, but >> it is rather annoying.
You know, I've never tried that before. I'll give it a try this weekend.
My experience with my USB flash drive is that Windows always asks how to handle multimedia formats, but I've never paid attention to what ports I've been plugging into.
-- Ted Zieglar "You can do it if you try."
"Tom Scales" <tom...@softhome.net> wrote in message
> Actually, I don't believe that is quite true. If you plug a USB storage > device in the SAME port, it should NOT cause this problem. Only when you > put it in a NEW port should this happen. Windows remembers devices that > have been inserted in that port before.
> Tom > "Ted Zieglar" <ted...@notmail.com> wrote in message > news:r7Bof.4$9J7.151701@news.sisna.com... > > It's actually quite logical - even if annoying - when you understand that > > every time you plug in a USB or 1394 device, Windows treats it like new > > hardware and tries to configure it. When you unplug the device, Windows > > has > > no way of knowing if you're ever going to plug it in again.
> > Given the relatively recent proliferation of USB and 1394 storage devices, > > perhaps Vista will ship with a way to deal more efficiently with this type > > of hardware.
> > -- > > Ted Zieglar > > "You can do it if you try."
> > "Bob Pownall" <repown...@netscape.net> wrote in message > > news:11q5lm8d496vaf4@corp.supernews.com... > >> On my Dell Inspiron 8500 (Windows XP Pro, SP2), I've recently begun > >> experiencing an annoyance.
> >> When I plug my SanDisk 512Mb flash drive into one of the USB ports on > >> the docking adaptor, Windows pops up a window saying:
> >> The disk or device contains more than one type of content. > >> What do you want Windows to do?
> >> I want it to "Do Nothing", and I've told it this in the past. (It > >> appears that my I8500 has "forgotten", as up to about three days ago, it > >> "Did Nothing".)
> >> On other systems where I used the flash drive, this dialog window has a > >> "Don't ask me this again" check box, but for some reason the check box > >> doesn't appear on my I8500. (I'm almost sure it did in the past, and I > >> checked the "Don't ask me again" message.)
> >> Any ideas? As I said in the subject, this isn't really a problem, but > >> it is rather annoying.
"Ted Zieglar" <ted...@notmail.com> wrote in news:nqCof.1$Py6.144526 @news.sisna.com:
> You know, I've never tried that before. I'll give it a try this weekend.
> My experience with my USB flash drive is that Windows always asks how to > handle multimedia formats, but I've never paid attention to what ports I've > been plugging into.
I was able to turn off the AutoPlay for one of my USB drives.
If that "Don't Prompt Me..." option is not available, just ignore the initial dialogue box.
Once the USB drive is plugged in and recognized, go into My Computer, right-click on the drive and click Properties.
You should then see a tab that says "AutoPlay". Click that, and then in the drop down box, select Mixed Content and below that in the Actions section, choose "Select an action to perform", and then select "Take no action". Apply the changes.
After that, unplug the USB drive and plug it back in. You should no longer get the annoying prompt asking you what you want to do.
However, if you look at the AutoPlay properties again, it would have been changed, but just cancel out of it. Well, at least that happened to me, but without making any changes, I unplugged it and plugged it back in and it did not auto-play.
-lyj
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Ted Zieglar wrote: > It's actually quite logical - even if annoying - when you understand that > every time you plug in a USB or 1394 device, Windows treats it like new > hardware and tries to configure it.
<snip>
I may have not been clear in my original post, so I'll try again.
1) The "What do you want Windows to do" message comes up when I plug in the flash drive on all XP systems I use. However, my I8500 is the only one where this message does *NOT* have a little "Don't ask me this again" message. (Or is it "Always take this action"? I forget, and my I8500 is the only XP system I have handy at present.)
2) I believe I had checked this box some previous time when the "What do you want Windows to do" message appeared on my I8500, as before about three days ago, the "What do you want Windows to do" message did *NOT* appear on my I8500. Now it's started appearing again, and I can't figure out how to make it stop.
Just after my most recent post in the thread, I got smart, tried Google, and found something that seems to have led to a solution.
While I still can't figure out why I'm not seeing the checkbox on the "What do you want Windows to do" window, I seem to have figured out how to stop the window from appearing in the first place.
I plugged in my flash drive, selected "My Computer", to display all the drives and peripherals associated with my I8500, selected drive D: (my flash drive), right clicked, selected "Properties", then selected the "AutoPlay" tab. In the AutoPlay tab, I selected in turn each type of file in the pull-down menu. For each type of file, I clicked on the "Select an action to perform" radio button, then selected "Take no action", and applied the setting.
After going through all four file types listed in the AutoPlay menu (Music files, Pictures, Video files and Mixed Content), I no longer have the "What do you want Windows to do?" annoyane. I can plug and unplug the flash drive, without any annoying Windows window coming up and prompting me to take some action.
Helped me too! Thanks! To continue the giving, you can use TweakUI to add additional tasks to the list of Autoplay Actions. I'm going to see if I can get Nero to run when I insert a blank disc...
Clint
-- Clint
"Bob Pownall" <repown...@netscape.net> wrote in message
> Just after my most recent post in the thread, I got smart, tried Google, > and found something that seems to have led to a solution.
> While I still can't figure out why I'm not seeing the checkbox on the > "What do you want Windows to do" window, I seem to have figured out how to > stop the window from appearing in the first place.
> I plugged in my flash drive, selected "My Computer", to display all the > drives and peripherals associated with my I8500, selected drive D: (my > flash drive), right clicked, selected "Properties", then selected the > "AutoPlay" tab. In the AutoPlay tab, I selected in turn each type of file > in the pull-down menu. For each type of file, I clicked on the "Select an > action to perform" radio button, then selected "Take no action", and > applied the setting.
> After going through all four file types listed in the AutoPlay menu (Music > files, Pictures, Video files and Mixed Content), I no longer have the > "What do you want Windows to do?" annoyane. I can plug and unplug the > flash drive, without any annoying Windows window coming up and prompting > me to take some action.
Bob: As far as I can tell it's random and probably some kind of bug. When I plug in my flash drives I get lots of problems. One is like you said, it asks you what action to take. Sometimes I saw the "don't ask again" or "always do this" checkbox and sometimes I didn't - no telling when it will show and didn't make a shred of difference anyway. I even did the Drive Properties thing where I went down and told it to "take no action" for everything but, like someone else mentioned, it seems to forget this after a while. Moreover, when you plug in a different flash drive, all bets are off. It probably recognizes it is different because of the different serial number, so even if you get it to work for your drive, when you stick your friends drive in there it may ask again. So while your solution may work for a while, don't bet on it. I've just learned to live with it, as annoying as it is.
The other, even more annoying problem is that it automatically assigns a drive letter to it that is already being used. To be specific, we use Novell Netware and the H: drive is our personal network drive. If I plug in the flash drive, sometimes, but not always although fairly often with friends flash drives, it will assign the drive letter to H even though H is already being used! When you go to WIndows Explorer, Windows Explorer still shows the Netware H drive, not the flash drive contents. However, if you use the Computer Management tool (control panel) and then click on Disk Management, it shows that the H drive is the flash drive not the Netware drive - COMPLETELY THE OPPOSITE OF WINDOWS EXPLORER! I then have to change the drive letter there (in Disk Management) and then it is OK. Well at least for some random time when it will go back to using H again. Like I said, it happens often or virtually always for friends drives that I plug into my computer and every two or three weeks for me. Any ideas on this?
Bob Pownall wrote: > Ted Zieglar wrote: > > It's actually quite logical - even if annoying - when you understand that > > every time you plug in a USB or 1394 device, Windows treats it like new > > hardware and tries to configure it. > <snip>
> I may have not been clear in my original post, so I'll try again.
> 1) The "What do you want Windows to do" message comes up when I plug in > the flash drive on all XP systems I use. However, my I8500 is the only > one where this message does *NOT* have a little "Don't ask me this > again" message. (Or is it "Always take this action"? I forget, and my > I8500 is the only XP system I have handy at present.)
> 2) I believe I had checked this box some previous time when the "What do > you want Windows to do" message appeared on my I8500, as before about > three days ago, the "What do you want Windows to do" message did *NOT* > appear on my I8500. Now it's started appearing again, and I can't > figure out how to make it stop.
Windows is very unpredictable if the removeable drive and network drive get the same letter. Manually change the letter of the flash drive in Computer Management. It will remember it the next time you plug it in.
> Bob: > As far as I can tell it's random and probably some kind of bug. When I > plug in my flash drives I get lots of problems. One is like you said, > it asks you what action to take. Sometimes I saw the "don't ask again" > or "always do this" checkbox and sometimes I didn't - no telling when > it will show and didn't make a shred of difference anyway. I even did > the Drive Properties thing where I went down and told it to "take no > action" for everything but, like someone else mentioned, it seems to > forget this after a while. Moreover, when you plug in a different > flash drive, all bets are off. It probably recognizes it is different > because of the different serial number, so even if you get it to work > for your drive, when you stick your friends drive in there it may ask > again. So while your solution may work for a while, don't bet on it. > I've just learned to live with it, as annoying as it is.
> The other, even more annoying problem is that it automatically assigns > a drive letter to it that is already being used. To be specific, we > use Novell Netware and the H: drive is our personal network drive. If > I plug in the flash drive, sometimes, but not always although fairly > often with friends flash drives, it will assign the drive letter to H > even though H is already being used! When you go to WIndows Explorer, > Windows Explorer still shows the Netware H drive, not the flash drive > contents. However, if you use the Computer Management tool (control > panel) and then click on Disk Management, it shows that the H drive is > the flash drive not the Netware drive - COMPLETELY THE OPPOSITE OF > WINDOWS EXPLORER! I then have to change the drive letter there (in > Disk Management) and then it is OK. Well at least for some random time > when it will go back to using H again. Like I said, it happens often > or virtually always for friends drives that I plug into my computer and > every two or three weeks for me. Any ideas on this?
> Mark H
> Bob Pownall wrote: >> Ted Zieglar wrote: >> > It's actually quite logical - even if annoying - when you understand >> > that >> > every time you plug in a USB or 1394 device, Windows treats it like new >> > hardware and tries to configure it. >> <snip>
>> I may have not been clear in my original post, so I'll try again.
>> 1) The "What do you want Windows to do" message comes up when I plug in >> the flash drive on all XP systems I use. However, my I8500 is the only >> one where this message does *NOT* have a little "Don't ask me this >> again" message. (Or is it "Always take this action"? I forget, and my >> I8500 is the only XP system I have handy at present.)
>> 2) I believe I had checked this box some previous time when the "What do >> you want Windows to do" message appeared on my I8500, as before about >> three days ago, the "What do you want Windows to do" message did *NOT* >> appear on my I8500. Now it's started appearing again, and I can't >> figure out how to make it stop.
