USB Flash drive being recognized as 1.44MB floppy disk

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general,microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware (More info?)

Whenever I connect my Flash drive, XP Pro picks it up as a 1.44MB floppy
disk drive.
Other USB devices work, this is a problem unique to USB storage devices (I
have the same trouble with an external HDD).
I have removed all USB drivers (hub, host controllers and storage device)
and rebooted but still the same.
I have 'updated' all USB drivers but still the same.
In Device Manager, under Floppy Disk Drives, I have USB DISK Pro USB Device,
which is clearly odd. If I remove and reboot it comes back and the problem
is the same. If I disable and reboot then the Flash drive isn't picked up at
all.
I've also tried disabling floppy disk support in the BIOS but this also
resulted in the Flash drive not being picked up. For some reason, the only
way the Windows will see my Flash drive is if it can assign it as a floppy,
rendering the device useless.
I've searched the web and found no answers.
Does anyone have any idea what might be causing this, please?
Windows XP Pro SP2 on Dell Latitude C840.

Thanks.

 

[damo]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general,microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware (More info?)

You're not alone in having that problem. I have the problem with several
new Toshiba laptops at school (although they pick up a 5 1/2" floppy for
some strange reason) and of course I don't have enough permissions on the
network to investigate. But recently I was able to recreate the (or a
similar) problem at home. I enabled write caching on the drive to improve
performance, and a friend pulled it out without using the safe remove icon.
I then had your described problem. Take note that your USB is designed and
formatted to be detected as both a floppy and a flash storage device.

When I went into device manager I found the actual "USB DISK PRO USB device"
listed under "Disk Drives" in Device Manager was disabled and would not
re-enable when I tried to do that. So I deleted every single icon to do
with the drive from within Device Manager (relating to the drive, NOT the
USB port drivers - basically meaning Windows would have to completely
redetect the drive). Then I turned off my computer and rebooted it again.
And presto, it was working again, with no visible data loss resulting from
being removed incorrectly.

Hope this helps in even a small way
Damo

"David McManus" <me@here.com> wrote in message
news:ujWzJ7GgFHA.2372@TK2MSFTNGP14.phx.gbl...
> Whenever I connect my Flash drive, XP Pro picks it up as a 1.44MB floppy
> disk drive.
> Other USB devices work, this is a problem unique to USB storage devices (I
> have the same trouble with an external HDD).
> I have removed all USB drivers (hub, host controllers and storage device)
> and rebooted but still the same.
> I have 'updated' all USB drivers but still the same.
> In Device Manager, under Floppy Disk Drives, I have USB DISK Pro USB
> Device, which is clearly odd. If I remove and reboot it comes back and the
> problem is the same. If I disable and reboot then the Flash drive isn't
> picked up at all.
> I've also tried disabling floppy disk support in the BIOS but this also
> resulted in the Flash drive not being picked up. For some reason, the only
> way the Windows will see my Flash drive is if it can assign it as a
> floppy, rendering the device useless.
> I've searched the web and found no answers.
> Does anyone have any idea what might be causing this, please?
> Windows XP Pro SP2 on Dell Latitude C840.
>
> Thanks.
>