USB thumb drives don't read anymore

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leosoybean

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I'm experiencing a USB device problem. I have two USB thumb drives of different brands that used to work. Now, if I plug them in (either front-side or back-side ports), the computer tones/beeps to let me know that it recognizes them, but neither drives auto-open nor are accessible via My Computer. I know for sure that the drives work, as they can be opened, explored, and formatted on other computers.

The device manager shows the Host Controllers and Root Hubs as working properly. I've looked for driver updates, uninstalled and reinstalled the drivers manually, uninstalled and allowed Windows to reinstall automatically on reboot, and I've tried disabling the 2.0 USB on BIOS and re-enabling it on reboot.

The Disk Manager shows the USB thumb drives. I've tried reformating them there, but a prompt informs me that is not possible because "the partition or volume is not enabled". Assigning drive names seems to do no good, and I can't disk-check for error either.

What bugs me is that the drives work on other computers. I would think it's a virus of some sort, though that is improbable as I did a full scan and clean a few days ago.

Ideas?
 
We really need the brand and model of the computer or motherboard.
Setup error on your computer. You may have changed something accidentally while working elsewhere. If your USB ports work for printers, scanners, and other components, you need to do a reset somewhere. You have done everything correctly.
If you haven't done this, go to your BIOS at startup, and see if there is something disabled... There will likely be something on one of the BIOS screens that must be enabled.
Or go to the motherboard manufacturers web site, and scroll through the online manual for that motherboard.
 
@ Tedster:

I tried the thread, but I got stuck on formatting because it simply won't let me. I'm told I can't low-level format the drive because the "partition or volume is not enabled", and the computer won't let me activate any sort of partition. I believe my problem is different altogether, as the two drives (EasyDisk and Lexar) work on other computers.

Essentially, I was able to pull out all relevant data on both drives, but it seems that my computer can't read USB mass storage devices properly anymore. I tried other flash drives and even digital camera memory sticks with a USB adapter. Looks like I'll just have to reformat somewhere down the line.
 
You could try checking if the USB devices work properly in a Linux live-CD environment (such as Knoppix). That would at least rule out hardware problems.
 
Wow excellent! I read through the thread and found a solution; it was a registry thing. I appreciate all your help guys!
 
Tell us a bit more... what kind of registry thing and how, exactly, did you resolve it.
 
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