Solved: Drive letters cannot be assigned to flash / USB drives under Windows XP

No i have had sp2 since i got this laptop. This is soooooooo anoying

Havent tried it, though Ihave tried using the gmail drive thing. Mybe that screwed it up.

How did you upgrade from Home to Pro?

Running Home then upgrade to Pro.

Can you just backup that drive
Then blow it out and install a new copy of Pro.
Try it this way, if it doesn't work then have the M30 serviced.
Faulty USB ports on the MOBO...

Replacement of the MOBO....

That cant be my problem because all my other stuff is working through the usb ports

Improper current can cause all sorts of nearly unexplainable problems, but I agree - this definitely sounds like a software issue. I've just been casually following this post, but when I get some more time I'm going to search for answers. I like a good mystery.

Don't forget about trying a 3rd party drive letter manager when you get the chance. I'd like to see the results, if there are any worth seeing.

You know, I was thinking, maybe using diskpart will do something different. You can access diskpart by going to Start > Run > cmd and type diskpart in the cmd shell. It might also help us get some more info about you have been looking at.

So type in the command to fire up diskpart - you'll be taken to the diskpart command shell. DISKPART>. At the shell, type:

list volume
list disk - Copy and paste the results in this thread

Is your USB drive listed anywhere in there? It should show up under the volume list for sure.

Using the volume number, issue the command select volume # - '#' should be your USB drive's volume number.

This should bring your USB volume into focus so any commands you type will apply to that volume only. Now issue the command: assign letter=M - (or whatever letter you'd like)


I'm just curious if this works and if the changes stick or not, so please try it and let us know what happens.

You may also poke around a bit. Just type help for the full list of options or [command] help for sub options. If you find anything useful or unexpected, please post it here so we can take a look.

Havent tried, but i can.

What I dont understand is why it shows up in INTERNET explorer and not windows explorer. Are they not the same shells?

I also get this problem when I go into disk manager where it comes up fine the 1st time, but if i disconnect the flash drive and plug it back in, it doesnt seem to want to go into disk management. I seem to have a similar problem with diskpart as well. It went in when I had already assigned a drive letter once, but when I disconnected and reconnected, it doesnt do anything anymore. Diskpart just closes after about 30 seconds or just stays at the "On computer: XXXX" line, while Disk management sometimes freezes at the "Connecting to logical device manager service" status.

There's something supressing that drive letter from showing in Windows Explorer. It's there... and accessible... It just doesn't show up.

It makes sense that if it didn't work WE, it wouldn't work in IE either... But as we see, that's not the case. So your logic is sound, but it could be some specific, obscure bug which affects the way WE enumerates or displays drives just under the "My Computer" window.

We'll just have to keep an open mind with this one, because it seems to defy most intellegent conceptions.

hm,

Ending the dmadmin.exe task flixes the freezing problem....



RESULTS:

Code:

Microsoft DiskPart version 5.1.3565

Copyright (C) 1999-2003 Microsoft Corporation.
On computer: GRAL

DISKPART> list volume

  Volume ###  Ltr  Label        Fs     Type        Size     Status     Info
  ----------  ---  -----------  -----  ----------  -------  ---------  --------
  Volume 0     I                       DVD-ROM         0 B
  Volume 1     C   System Driv  NTFS   Partition     60 GB  Healthy    System
  Volume 2     E   Data Drive   NTFS   Partition   7217 MB  Healthy
  Volume 3          MY USB  FAT    Removeable    62 MB

DISKPART> list disk

  Disk ###  Status      Size     Free     Dyn  Gpt
  --------  ----------  -------  -------  ---  ---
  Disk 0    Online        75 GB      0 B

DISKPART> select volume 3

Volume 3 is the selected volume.

DISKPART> list disk

  Disk ###  Status      Size     Free     Dyn  Gpt
  --------  ----------  -------  -------  ---  ---
  Disk 0    Online        75 GB      0 B

DISKPART> assign letter = M

DiskPart successfully assigned the drive letter or mount point.

DISKPART> list volume

  Volume ###  Ltr  Label        Fs     Type        Size     Status     Info
  ----------  ---  -----------  -----  ----------  -------  ---------  --------
  Volume 0     I                       DVD-ROM         0 B
  Volume 1     C   System Driv  NTFS   Partition     60 GB  Healthy    System
  Volume 2     E   Data Drive    NTFS   Partition   7217 MB  Healthy
* Volume 3     M   MY USB       FAT    Removeable    62 MB

Still doesnt show up in my computer though....


And the other problem is that once I use up a letter and disconnect the device, i can no longer map anything to it until I reboot, almost as if the computer still thinks it is there. If I remap the drive without disconnecting then I can use the old letter fine...

What drivers control this stuff? Also, I found something called USBdetector.exe on my computer and uninstalled it, but it didnt do anything useful. I dont know where it came from really, or where to download it again.

Yes, i was running home and then upgraded, but i think it was faulty before that, just cant remember for sure.

Formatting is not an option, because I dont have enough space and dont really want to spend like 80 bux going to some pc repair shop to do a backup. I also have a lot of custom configs on here which took me a while to do, as well as some software installed where I lost the cd.

My USB ports are not faulty, because my external hdd works fine, and the USB key is recognized when I dual boot ubuntu.

Edit: I just tried driveman as a 3rd party drive manager, and it only detects it once i map the drive

ok tried all of those and no luck, i mean if i could get Microsoft update working i reckon it would fix it but everytime i try i get this error code:

[Error number: 0x8024402F]

re: windows update problem.. This site may help.. here's the summary:

try clearing out your temp files:
Internet Options>
-delete Cookies
-delete files
-[settings]>[view objects]>delete if any there (optional)
Close IE and reopen or reboot your PC and try..

Check your router/internet connection and settings, check your firewall etc.

Curious.. does your USB sticks pick up in WE like normal on other pcs?

Windows uses a generic 'usbstor' driver which handles virtually any USB storage device. It's included with your Windows install.

This is different than your USB host controller drivers. If there were a problem with usbstor, reinstalling SP2 (for example) should fix whatever problems may exist with your USB storage driver.

where can I get just usbstor by itself?

If it is an OS issue, then what could be the causes?

The only thing I can think of is drivers, so which drivers could cause the issue?

Just one more thing. I have a SD card reader on my laptop and I have the same problems with them too in that slot. Therefore, it HAS to be some driver that deals with flash memory, since my USB flash key, USB mp3 flash player and CARD flash disk all do the same thing.

Your SD-card reader is probably connected via your internal USB bus, so that doesn't necessarily mean it isn't USB. But I think your USB storage drivers are much more likely a cause than USB itself. I don't 100% rule anything out, but I don't believe it is either. Purely based on conjecture, I think it some quirky Windows problem with assigning drive letters under a certain set of circumstances. Of course, I am not a software engineer, so my guess is as good as yours.

If you're looking to install your USB mass storage driver, your system's original usbstor.sys (driver), usbstor.pf (service) and usbstor.inf (setup information) will be located on your XP install disc. You'll find the files in the i386 folder somewhere (may be in subfolders.. not sure) and the last letter of the extension is usually chopped at the end like so: usbstor.sys will be usbstor.sy_ on your CD.

Here are the directories where these files belong and should be copied to:

• usbstor.sys - C:\Windows\System32\Drivers\
• usbstor.pf - C:\Windows\INF\
• usbstor.ini - C:\Windows\INF\

The only complication I forsee is Windows File Protection. If you copy those files over, they'll just get overwritten (without any warning) by the originals cached by WFP. We need to disable WFP before copying those files.

Since SP2, MS has removed the option to disable WFP, although we can still enlist the aid of an application (or registry setting) to disable WFP at this point. Search around and you'll find something as I don't have any recommendations.

You can also use SFC (System File Checker) from the command prompt. Just type in SFC /SCANNOW and make sure you have your Windows XP disc in the original install drive. It will scan your computer for corrupted or changed versions of system files, which I'm assuming includes usbstor.sys and .pf and probably ini and replace them with nice, fresh versions from the CD.

There have been updates to the XP USB storage driver over the years as well, prior and probably after SP2. So reinstalling your SP2 would probably have the same affect as copying or SFCing the files.

Just some more ideas... Good luck!

I already tried the sfc, and it screwed up my nvidia drivers :S It also took a while, since it kept prompting my for my cd when I already had it in, and I had to mash "retry" about 100 times to get it to complete. Still have the same problem though :S

Thanks for the ideas though

Can anyone give me the installation for the windows usb driver?

Would the sd card slot be connected via internal USB? How would I check that?

What version of Windows are you talking about? XP has it's own USB drivers, but if don't trust them, try searching driverguide.com

FIXED IT!

It had something to do with the registry, and nothing to do with the drivers at all.



**** PLEASE ENSURE THAT YOU EXPORT THE FILES BEFORE DELETING SO YOU CAN IMPORT IF YOU SCREW UP ****

Be sure to try remapping your drive letters before attempting this fix. It is only to solve the issue once the drive letters refuse to remap properly

For Windows XP Only - Not sure of the exact registry keys for 2000, but should be similar

**********************************************************************
1) Go into start -> run -> regedit -> hit ok

2) Navigate to:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevice1]

3)file -> export (the mounteddevices1 folder) and save to a chosen location

4) delete all the dosdevices drives (ie. \dosdevices\C: )

5) I cant remember if i did it to the "mountd devices" folder too, so dont do it at first but if it doesnt work then do it after

6) go to [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E967-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}]

7) Export this too and save to a chosen location that you will remember

8) delete the upperfilter key

9) reboot and try plugging in your device.

This actually didnt work for me when i tried it, but then i tried plugging in my device an hour later and it worked flawlessly (all 3 flash drives)

Hope this helps! Your registry may be slightly different, but look in there, there are probably a bunch of keys that are screwing it up.

Cheers