USB mass storage device not getting drive letter

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I got an external USB hard disk enclosure. It works fine on my laptop,
it gets detected, drivers get loaded, and everything shows up fine in
Device Manager, and a drive letter is assigned to it. When I put the
same device onto my desktop, almost everything happens the same,
except it doesn't get a drive letter assigned to it. I don't see it in
Disk Manager.

All computers are running XP SP2. I've tried it in a second desktop PC
with XP SP2 as well, and exact same thing happens -- no drive letter,
no recognition from Disk Manager, but Device Manager sees it fine
doesn't find any problems with it.

Yousuf Khan
 
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none wrote:
> Do you already have a drive Z:?
>
> Can you set a drive letter from Device Manager, under properties?

No, as I said, it doesn't show up as a disk under Disk Manager, but it
does show up as a device under Device Manager.

Yousuf Khan
 
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Try using diskpart from the commandline to assign a drive. Hope this
works it has worked for me when I needed to make a drive showup. Could
be something else.

Later,

Alan

>>>>> "ykhan" == ykhan <yjkhan@gmail.com> writes:

ykhan> I got an external USB hard disk enclosure. It works fine on my
ykhan> laptop, it gets detected, drivers get loaded, and everything
ykhan> shows up fine in Device Manager, and a drive letter is
ykhan> assigned to it. When I put the same device onto my desktop,
ykhan> almost everything happens the same, except it doesn't get a
ykhan> drive letter assigned to it. I don't see it in Disk Manager.

ykhan> All computers are running XP SP2. I've tried it in a second
ykhan> desktop PC with XP SP2 as well, and exact same thing happens
ykhan> -- no drive letter, no recognition from Disk Manager, but
ykhan> Device Manager sees it fine doesn't find any problems with it.

ykhan> Yousuf Khan
 
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Alan Walpool wrote:
> Try using diskpart from the commandline to assign a drive. Hope this
> works it has worked for me when I needed to make a drive showup. Could
> be something else.

Didn't work.

I heard somewhere that the USB mass storage driver doesn't seem to work
in a system with more than one hard drive (which is the case for all of
my desktops)?

Yousuf Khan
 
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On 5 Mar 2005 15:09:33 -0800, yjkhan@gmail.com (ykhan) wrote:

>I got an external USB hard disk enclosure. It works fine on my laptop,
>it gets detected, drivers get loaded, and everything shows up fine in
>Device Manager, and a drive letter is assigned to it. When I put the
>same device onto my desktop, almost everything happens the same,
>except it doesn't get a drive letter assigned to it. I don't see it in
>Disk Manager.
>
>All computers are running XP SP2. I've tried it in a second desktop PC
>with XP SP2 as well, and exact same thing happens -- no drive letter,
>no recognition from Disk Manager, but Device Manager sees it fine
>doesn't find any problems with it.

Do you have partitions and/or network drives on your desktop? I've had
trouble with "collisions" between drive letters and I'm still not sure of
the rules - sometimes it seems that a drive letter "sticks" with removable
drives across systems. In Device Manager for the drive, from the Volumes
Tab click on Populate and see what drive letters it wants to use and a
possible collision, then go to Disk Management and fiddle with the drive
letters.

--
Rgds, George Macdonald
 
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On 5 Mar 2005 19:55:05 -0800, "YKhan" <yjkhan@gmail.com> wrote:

>none wrote:
>> Do you already have a drive Z:?
>>
>> Can you set a drive letter from Device Manager, under properties?
>
>No, as I said, it doesn't show up as a disk under Disk Manager, but it
>does show up as a device under Device Manager.
>

How do the device driver details compare on the two machines?

RM
 
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Bitstring <vfdl21dblivmild0kmqitqedfrpcjpnv9n@4ax.com>, from the
wonderful person George Macdonald <fammacd=!SPAM^nothanks@tellurian.com>
said
>On 5 Mar 2005 15:09:33 -0800, yjkhan@gmail.com (ykhan) wrote:
>
>>I got an external USB hard disk enclosure. It works fine on my laptop,
>>it gets detected, drivers get loaded, and everything shows up fine in
>>Device Manager, and a drive letter is assigned to it. When I put the
>>same device onto my desktop, almost everything happens the same,
>>except it doesn't get a drive letter assigned to it. I don't see it in
>>Disk Manager.
>>
>>All computers are running XP SP2. I've tried it in a second desktop PC
>>with XP SP2 as well, and exact same thing happens -- no drive letter,
>>no recognition from Disk Manager, but Device Manager sees it fine
>>doesn't find any problems with it.
>
>Do you have partitions and/or network drives on your desktop? I've had
>trouble with "collisions" between drive letters and I'm still not sure of
>the rules - sometimes it seems that a drive letter "sticks" with removable
>drives across systems. In Device Manager for the drive, from the Volumes
>Tab click on Populate and see what drive letters it wants to use and a
>possible collision, then go to Disk Management and fiddle with the drive
>letters.

They shouldn't stick across systems, but they will definitely stick
across time - i.e. if a WinXP system has ever seen a formatted drive it
will have the (last) drive letter stored in the registry, which can
cause all sorts of confusion later. Usually it seems to work out OK, but
sometimes ..

--
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SC recommends the use of Firefox; Get smart, or get assimilated.
 
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Robert Myers wrote:
> On 5 Mar 2005 19:55:05 -0800, "YKhan" <yjkhan@gmail.com> wrote:
> How do the device driver details compare on the two machines?

They're almost identical, except for the no drive letter thingy.
Actually I don't have access to that machine where it's working right
now, that's in Montreal. I use (or was planning to use) this USB hard
disk to transfer files back and forth between my two setups in Ottawa
and Montreal (whereas previously I used to bring the whole laptop with
me when coming back to Ottawa).

Yousuf Khan
 
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On Sun, 06 Mar 2005 02:27:47 -0500, Yousuf Khan <bbbl67@ezrs.com> wrote:

>Alan Walpool wrote:
>> Try using diskpart from the commandline to assign a drive. Hope this
>> works it has worked for me when I needed to make a drive showup. Could
>> be something else.
>
>Didn't work.
>
>I heard somewhere that the USB mass storage driver doesn't seem to work
>in a system with more than one hard drive (which is the case for all of
>my desktops)?
>
> Yousuf Khan

I have 6 sca drives across two hbas, four optical drives, and 3 emulated CDs,
a SM/CF combo usb mass storage device plus a "thumb drive", all running under
XP Pro. No issues.

I think you're still missing a driver. Maybe the chipset drivers didn't
install correctly?

/daytripper
 

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Do you already have a drive Z:?

Can you set a drive letter from Device Manager, under properties?

"ykhan" <yjkhan@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:bd84ed0c.0503051509.7b5df8fb@posting.google.com...
>I got an external USB hard disk enclosure. It works fine on my laptop,
> it gets detected, drivers get loaded, and everything shows up fine in
> Device Manager, and a drive letter is assigned to it. When I put the
> same device onto my desktop, almost everything happens the same,
> except it doesn't get a drive letter assigned to it. I don't see it in
> Disk Manager.
>
> All computers are running XP SP2. I've tried it in a second desktop PC
> with XP SP2 as well, and exact same thing happens -- no drive letter,
> no recognition from Disk Manager, but Device Manager sees it fine
> doesn't find any problems with it.
>
> Yousuf Khan
 
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> none <none@nowhere.com> wrote:

> Do you already have a drive Z:?

Does XP support environment variable LASTDRIVE ?
If so, is there any chance it's set to something
other than Z ?

My guess is that this isn't a productive line of
inquiry, as my various Win2K docs are entirely
silent on the topic, so chances are it's not an
XP feature.

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My USB drive works fine on a system with two other hard drives.

Get TweakUI and be sure to set last drive to Z.

--

LEO

The supply of government exceeds the demand.



"Yousuf Khan" <bbbl67@ezrs.com> wrote in message
news:0L6dnYG5ELTYrLbfRVn-qQ@rogers.com...
> Alan Walpool wrote:
>> Try using diskpart from the commandline to assign a drive.
>> Hope this
>> works it has worked for me when I needed to make a drive
>> showup. Could
>> be something else.
>
> Didn't work.
>
> I heard somewhere that the USB mass storage driver doesn't seem
> to work in a system with more than one hard drive (which is the
> case for all of my desktops)?
>
> Yousuf Khan
 
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Bob Niland wrote:
> Does XP support environment variable LASTDRIVE ?
> If so, is there any chance it's set to something
> other than Z ?

No, I haven't seen the lastdrive used since the DOS days, and even then
in the last days of DOS, they were already defaulting to Lastdrive of Z.
I have plenty of drive letters available, just none of them are used
by this drive.

Yousuf Khan
 
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On Sun, 6 Mar 2005 12:19:11 +0000, GSV Three Minds in a Can
<GSV@quik.clara.co.uk> wrote:

>Bitstring <vfdl21dblivmild0kmqitqedfrpcjpnv9n@4ax.com>, from the
>wonderful person George Macdonald <fammacd=!SPAM^nothanks@tellurian.com>
>said
>>On 5 Mar 2005 15:09:33 -0800, yjkhan@gmail.com (ykhan) wrote:
>>
>>>I got an external USB hard disk enclosure. It works fine on my laptop,
>>>it gets detected, drivers get loaded, and everything shows up fine in
>>>Device Manager, and a drive letter is assigned to it. When I put the
>>>same device onto my desktop, almost everything happens the same,
>>>except it doesn't get a drive letter assigned to it. I don't see it in
>>>Disk Manager.
>>>
>>>All computers are running XP SP2. I've tried it in a second desktop PC
>>>with XP SP2 as well, and exact same thing happens -- no drive letter,
>>>no recognition from Disk Manager, but Device Manager sees it fine
>>>doesn't find any problems with it.
>>
>>Do you have partitions and/or network drives on your desktop? I've had
>>trouble with "collisions" between drive letters and I'm still not sure of
>>the rules - sometimes it seems that a drive letter "sticks" with removable
>>drives across systems. In Device Manager for the drive, from the Volumes
>>Tab click on Populate and see what drive letters it wants to use and a
>>possible collision, then go to Disk Management and fiddle with the drive
>>letters.
>
>They shouldn't stick across systems, but they will definitely stick
>across time - i.e. if a WinXP system has ever seen a formatted drive it
>will have the (last) drive letter stored in the registry, which can
>cause all sorts of confusion later. Usually it seems to work out OK, but
>sometimes ..

In a perfect world, GUIDs (Globally Unique IDs) *really* are unique.:)
I've seen some oddball behavior which I cannot explain.

--
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cquirke (MVP Windows shell/user) wrote:
> Suspect this if Drive Manager shows the device (drive, volume) but
you
> don't see it in Windows Explorer. Use Drive Manager to set a
> different drive letter so that it escapes the shadow of the LAN
share.

No, "Drive" Manager (actually is "Disk" Manager, but I know what you
meant) is not showing it at all as a volume. If it showed up in Disk
Manager, I would've known what to do with it then.

Strangely enough, now this drive is not showing up on its original home
either, where it was working previously. I'm going to have see what
else is going on here, maybe something got shaken loose while I was
transporting it?

Yousuf Khan
 
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Leo wrote:
> My USB drive works fine on a system with two other hard drives.
>
> Get TweakUI and be sure to set last drive to Z.

I did check it out with TweakUI originally.

Yousuf Khan
 
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Scott Alfter wrote:
> I'm assuming that the drive is already partitioned and formatted.
When you
> plug it into your desktop and bring up the Disk Management plugin, is
it not
> showing up at all? The drive and its partitions should show up
there,
> whether one or more drive letters are allocated to the drive or not.
I've
> had parts of flash-card readers not get drive letters when they're
plugged
> in because they were already taken by network shares or other drives;
going
> into Disk Management and reassigning drive letters has always cleared
up the
> problem for me.

Yeah, it was already partitioned and formatted. In fact, it was
carrying some data for me that I wanted to transfer between a couple of
my machines, which I was not able to transfer because of this problem.

It's like as if the partition has gone totally missing. Actually even
if it was a completely blank unpartitioned disk, it would still show up
inside disk manager which would then give me the option to partition
and format it. But it doesn't show that.

Yousuf Khan
 
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Franc Zabkar wrote:
> On 5 Mar 2005 15:09:33 -0800, yjkhan@gmail.com (ykhan) put finger to
> keyboard and composed:
>
> >I got an external USB hard disk enclosure. It works fine on my
laptop,
> >it gets detected, drivers get loaded, and everything shows up fine
in
> >Device Manager, and a drive letter is assigned to it. When I put the
> >same device onto my desktop, almost everything happens the same,
> >except it doesn't get a drive letter assigned to it. I don't see it
in
> >Disk Manager.
>
> Is a USB pen/thumb/flash drive assigned a drive letter?

Usually yes.

Were you asking a question or making an observation?

Yousuf Khan
 
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On Sun, 06 Mar 2005 18:51:05 -0500, Yousuf Khan <bbbl67@ezrs.com>
>Bob Niland wrote:

>> Does XP support environment variable LASTDRIVE ?

>No, I haven't seen the lastdrive used since the DOS days

One of the things that can hide a drive letter in XP, is a network
share with the same drive letter. This applies both to USB sticks and
to hard drive volumes.

Suspect this if Drive Manager shows the device (drive, volume) but you
don't see it in Windows Explorer. Use Drive Manager to set a
different drive letter so that it escapes the shadow of the LAN share.



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ideal for experimentation!
>---------------- ----- ---- --- -- - - - -
 
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On 5 Mar 2005 15:09:33 -0800, yjkhan@gmail.com (ykhan) put finger to
keyboard and composed:

>I got an external USB hard disk enclosure. It works fine on my laptop,
>it gets detected, drivers get loaded, and everything shows up fine in
>Device Manager, and a drive letter is assigned to it. When I put the
>same device onto my desktop, almost everything happens the same,
>except it doesn't get a drive letter assigned to it. I don't see it in
>Disk Manager.

Is a USB pen/thumb/flash drive assigned a drive letter?


- Franc Zabkar
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On 7 Mar 2005 10:55:10 -0800, "YKhan" <yjkhan@gmail.com> wrote:

>cquirke (MVP Windows shell/user) wrote:
>> Suspect this if Drive Manager shows the device (drive, volume) but
>you
>> don't see it in Windows Explorer. Use Drive Manager to set a
>> different drive letter so that it escapes the shadow of the LAN
>share.
>
>No, "Drive" Manager (actually is "Disk" Manager, but I know what you
>meant) is not showing it at all as a volume. If it showed up in Disk
>Manager, I would've known what to do with it then.
>
>Strangely enough, now this drive is not showing up on its original home
>either, where it was working previously. I'm going to have see what
>else is going on here, maybe something got shaken loose while I was
>transporting it?

Does it still show in Device Manager as a drive? If so what does Populate
show?

--
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On 7 Mar 2005 11:05:26 -0800, "YKhan" <yjkhan@gmail.com> put finger to
keyboard and composed:

>Franc Zabkar wrote:
>> On 5 Mar 2005 15:09:33 -0800, yjkhan@gmail.com (ykhan) put finger to
>> keyboard and composed:
>>
>> >I got an external USB hard disk enclosure. It works fine on my
>laptop,
>> >it gets detected, drivers get loaded, and everything shows up fine
>in
>> >Device Manager, and a drive letter is assigned to it. When I put the
>> >same device onto my desktop, almost everything happens the same,
>> >except it doesn't get a drive letter assigned to it. I don't see it
>in
>> >Disk Manager.
>>
>> Is a USB pen/thumb/flash drive assigned a drive letter?
>
>Usually yes.
>
>Were you asking a question or making an observation?
>
> Yousuf Khan

Sorry, I realised just after posting that my question may have been
ambiguous. What I was asking was whether a flash drive is assigned a
drive letter on *your* system in its present state. If so, then this
could shed some light on any LASTDRIVE issue, ie it could confirm
whether additional drive letters were available. Does the USB HD's
drive letter show up in Device Manager but not in Explorer, or is it
missing from both? Is it possible that the drive letter is hidden
(Tweakui should be able to tell you this)? If you switch to a command
prompt, can you see the HD using a DIR command?


- Franc Zabkar
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George Macdonald wrote:
> Does it still show in Device Manager as a drive? If so what does Populate
> show?

Yes, it shows under Device Manager, Disk Drives, as "USB 2.0 Storage
Device USB Device".

I don't see a Populate option for it.

Yousuf Khan
 
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On Tue, 08 Mar 2005 20:06:29 -0500, Yousuf Khan <bbbl67@ezrs.com> wrote:

>George Macdonald wrote:
>> Does it still show in Device Manager as a drive? If so what does Populate
>> show?
>
>Yes, it shows under Device Manager, Disk Drives, as "USB 2.0 Storage
>Device USB Device".
>
>I don't see a Populate option for it.

Under the Volumes tab of a disk/cd/dvd etc. drive there should be a
Populate button. If it ain't there, I'd think something might be wrong
with the MBR - not sure if bootitng www.bootitng.com works with USB yet but
it'd be worth a try to see what it makes of it. Other than that if you
care about the data, some other disk fix software?

--
Rgds, George Macdonald