Solved My USB storage recognition problem
Greetings all, after searching the net extensively and seeing a miriad of suggestions and theories as to what the problem is, I thought I would add my $.02 and hope it helps someone else. Drivers and software fixes are typically not the problem with WinXP. I know that auto-updates can break things without warning.....but to the folks that have "reloaded" their OS to no avail, try this scenario on for size.....teacher's computer that is identical to 5 others in the room, same image and OS setup as all the others, yet this one in particular WILL NOT under any circumstance, recognize any USB storage device. That means, all flash/thumb drives, USB enclosure Hard Drives, or any other type of memory/disk device. Yet, interestingly enough, the same ports work fine with other USB devices, mice, printers and bluetooth adapters.
Now this got me to think originally that it must be a software configuration
problem since the teacher was loading his own programs. After hours of troubleshooting, I just decided to re-image it back to a known working state (the way I gave it to him in the first place). Still no USB mass storage device would work. So, that should rule out software! Today, I started perusing the BIOS (BTW, I also reflashed the BIOS and set to factory defaults with no luck). I found a USB item in one of the BIOS menus and just started changing settings. VOILA, this box started recognizing my USB flash drives and external Hard Disks. So, the setting that worked was narrowed down to an "enable USB 2.0" needed to be "disabled". Now, maybe a chip on the MB for 2.0 is broke, but since you can use a 2.0 device on a 1.1 port (with some minor performance hit), I am satisfied with this solution.
Now, some thoughts, mice and other devices probably worked because they don't need to be 2.0 devices, not much throughput, but mass storage, yes, it makes sense that these devices are usually a 2.0 platform. So, look at your BIOS, my guess, my particular computer came shipped with a BIOS setting that worked but it was not a factory default. Some electrical event reset the BIOS to factory settings and broke the USB Mass Storage recognition. OR, something has gone bad on the MB and now 2.0 will never work at max efficiency. Either way, it works now and I'm sleeping again!
Good Luck,
John