USB storage devices do not show drive letter in Explorer - but otherwise work perfectly
James Schlackman
this issue.
A user reported a few days ago that none of their USB keys or their
digital camera were showing up in My Computer when plugged in. This is
happening on two laptop machines but all the devices in question work
fine on a different computer. All are running Windows XP Pro. All used
to work fine a couple of weeks ago (personally verified, not just a user
claim).
I've been working on this on and off now for a couple of days and am
stumped; what I'm being presented with is very strange, and while I've
found a number of posts on various forums where others have had the same
problem, no-one seems to have a fix. Here's a summary of my
investigations so far:
- When plugging in any USB mass storage device (tried 4 different ones
so far), no drive appears in My Computer.
- Trying to access the drive by typing its letter into the address bar
(e.g. 'E:\') yields the following Message Box:
[Title bar:] Microsoft Internet Explorer
[Message:] Cannot find file 'file:///E:/'. make sure the path or
Internet address is correct.
- The device shows up in device manager.
- It shows up in disk management, is partitioned and formatted, and has
a drive letter assigned.
- The drive letter does not overlap with any network shares or any other
drives.
- Changing the drive letter has no effect.
- Rebooting with the drive connected has no effect.
- There are no drives hidden using TweakUI, registry, or through Group
Policy as far as I can determine.
- The machine is fully up to date with Microsoft Update.
- There are no viruses on the system according to Symantec Antivirus.
- Here's where it gets strange: the assigned drive letter is accessible
from ANYWHERE that isn't Windows Explorer (or uses it, i.e. Command
dialog boxes). If I open cmd and type E: I can browse the drive fine.
- If I set up a shortcut with the following command line:
explorer.exe E:\
this works, though the address bar for this Explorer window comes up
empty instead of showing the path as it normally would. However, I can
then any address including E:\ into that explorer window without
problems, and launch any file contained therein, but if I open a new
Explorer window and type this address in, even with the first still
open, I get the original error message. If I browse up through the file
system in the new window, the drive is still not visible when viewing
the contents of My Computer.
At the moment the user is using the shortcut I described above as a
workaround, but given the problem is affecting multiple machines I'd
love to know what's going on and how to solve it without a rebuild. Any
and all suggestions (other than a rebuild!) gratefully received.
Martin L
"James Schlackman" <jschl...@SECRETchalloners.com> a écrit dans le
message de news: 6JbWf.10518$KF3....@newsfe6-win.ntli.net...
Ed Covney
I think the idea is to manually assign DIFFERENT
drive letters to each external USB device.
I have 3 devices - a Flash card reader (now B:),
A creative Nomad MP3 player (now N:) and an
external HDD (now X:).
When windows was allowed to assign the drive
letters, there were problems. Now that they all
have assignments not near Window's next
available drive letter - there's never a problem.
Ed
James Schlackman
problem occurs regardless.
--
James Schlackman
jschl...@SECRETchalloners.com
__________________________________________________________________________
IT & Graphics Technician
Dr Challoner's Grammar School, United Kingdom
Remove secrecy from email to reply.
Uwe Sieber
James Schlackman wrote:
>
> A user reported a few days ago that none of their USB keys or their
> digital camera were showing up in My Computer when plugged in.
>
> - It shows up in disk management, is partitioned and formatted, and has
> a drive letter assigned.
> - The drive letter does not overlap with any network shares or any other
> drives.
> - Changing the drive letter has no effect.
> - Rebooting with the drive connected has no effect.
> - There are no drives hidden using TweakUI, registry, or through Group
> Policy as far as I can determine.
> - The machine is fully up to date with Microsoft Update.
> - There are no viruses on the system according to Symantec Antivirus.
Great checklist :-)
The only issue I know that fits to the problem is a failed
installation of the Daemon Tools:
http://www.daemon-tools.cc/dtcc/archive/index.php/t-7868.html
The solution for this problem is to delete some drive files
from c:\windows\system32\drivers
secdrv.sys
sptd.sys
sptd~~~~.sys
Greetings from Germany
Uwe
James Schlackman
disk.
It does look like a similar problem, though reading through the link you
provided it looks like with the Daemon Tools problem the drives stop
working completely and don't even show up in Device Manager. That's what
makes my problem so confusing to me - the drive works fine, it just
doesn't show up in Explorer!
Thanks for the suggestion - guess I'll just have to keep looking.
Uwe Sieber wrote:
> The only issue I know that fits to the problem is a failed
> installation of the Daemon Tools:
> http://www.daemon-tools.cc/dtcc/archive/index.php/t-7868.html
>
> The solution for this problem is to delete some drive files
> from c:\windows\system32\drivers
> secdrv.sys
> sptd.sys
> sptd~~~~.sys
>
>
> Greetings from Germany
>
> Uwe
djfisher
I have found the probable solution in MS article 817900
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/817900/
but in going for the reg hack I don't have just the "usb" folder and I am
loath to modify any of the others without advice.
James Schlackman
involves the USB ports stopping working completely. On my problem
systems the USB ports work fine with anything but mass storage devices,
and even those work fine except for the drive not showing up in Explorer.
djfisher wrote:
> I am troubleshooting what sounds like a simuliar if not identical problem.
>
> I have found the probable solution in MS article 817900
>
> http://support.microsoft.com/kb/817900/
>
> but in going for the reg hack I don't have just the "usb" folder and I am
> loath to modify any of the others without advice.
--
laurenp
the program they are opened with since the drive appears normally through any
other program but Windows Explorer. I appreciate the idea for creating a
shortcut workaround on the desktop directly to the drive. I'll definitely
put that to use until I find a resolution to this issue.
Ariel Álvarez
In my case I have a HDD with three partitions C,D and E. When I
plugged my usb drive the letter was not assigned so I had to manually
assign the letter.
Then I could reach the drive with the comand prompt or with the
shortcut mentioned above, but not with the windows explorer.
And the solution was the following:
I changed the partition letters from D to O and from E to P.
Restart windows.
Plug the USB drive.
This time the drive showed up in the explorer as D:
I wanted to keep my disk partitions in the prior state so:
I changed the letter of drive D to F.
I re-assign my D and E drive letter to my disk partitions.
After this procedure whenever I connect the drive It gets assigned
drive F and it shows up in the explorer.
I have tested also plugging another drive and no problem at all.
Let me know if this helps.
Panos
Thanks a zillion. I would have never ever thought on the unsuccesful
insatllation of daemon tools.
Followed the advise, deleted the
c:\windows\system32\drivers
secdrv.sys
sptd.sys
sptd~~~~.sys
files and .....
miracle everything was back in order.You helped one depserate person to
avoid a clean installation of windows you deserve at least a THANK YOU.
Have fun
Panos
nicobas
mass storage does not show in Windows Explorer".
I fixed the same problem following the advice given there.
--
NB
"James Schlackman" escribió: