USB mass storage device shows in Device Manager, not in Disk Managemen

[Hootie361]

I'm at a loss folks. I've Google searched for this mishap and, after trying everything posted on the many sites, have had no luck. Here's the situation:

I have an XPC (running XP SP2) with two hard disks. Disk 0 is an 80GB Seagate SATA drive with letters D:, G:, and F: associated. Disk 1 is a 120 GB WD EIDE drive with letters C: and E: associated. I have a Plextor DVD-RW listed as H:, and at any given time I have a USB flash key that takes up I: and J:, a USB card reader that takes up M:, and a Cat-5 WD MyBook that takes up K:.

I recently purchased a USB to IDE device so I could read the contents of my old 2.5" drives (old mp3 players). When I plug this device in, the computer acknowledges a "USB mass storage device" is installed, but doesn't assign a drive letter. When I manage the PC, Device Manager shows the device listed under Disk Drives as a "Fujitsu USB" (which is fine, it is a Fujitsu 2.5" IDE drive). However, the Disk Management doesn't show the drive as attached.

I have tried any combination of the following:

Disconnecting my Cat-5 MyBook
Using regedit to reassign the other USB devices to other drive letters (N:, P
Using regedit to delete all traces of USB devices then plugging in my new USB-IDE device (no avail)

My computer can see the USB device attached. It has correctly identified the device attached as a Fujitsu drive. Why no drive letter?

Thanks

 

[Hootie361]

Update: In another thread I read someone solved their similar problem by installing a jumper on the device. I just tried that with no luck. Still stuck... any ideas?

 

[trafficking]

I am having the same problem with a Staples branded Relay 2GB USB flash drive. I've tried on multiple PC's and get the same result.

When I insert the drive, the indicator on my physical thumb drive lights up orange and XP recognizes a USB device has been connected. Device Manager shows a mass storage device connected. But the drive does not show up in Explorer or Disk Management.

Is there any other way to diagnose a potentially faulty thumb drive?

 

[Hootie361]

For the USB thumb drive, try the following:

Run "regedit" and select the "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SYSTEM/MountedDevices" folder. See all the "Dos Devices" listed? You'll have one entry for each physically mounted drive (HDD or Disc) plus you'll have one show up for each USB drive you attempt to insert. Double click each device listed and see if you see text saying something like "U.S.B.S.T.O.R...". Once you find that device, right click it and select "Rename". Now change the drive letter to something unused... like Q: or something. Close regedit, disconnect the USB device and reconnect again.

If all went well, you should be able to see your new drive when you plug it in. I recently had a conflict with my Sandisk 5-in-1 reader and my PNY thumb drive. I forced my PNY to be the N: drive and the Sandisk to be the M: drive, that solved the problem. Unfortunately, I can't get this darn USB-IDE to resolve it's conflict.

 

[Guest]

This is from a post elsewhere, but it worked for me:

Assuming that the drive has been properly partitioned and formatted, then this USB drive probably still needs to be enumerated for this computer. Open Control Panel. Go through Administrative Tools to Computer Management. Under Storage, click on Disk Management. Locate the USB drive and it
probably needs to have a drive letter assigned to it. Do so (Right click and change drive letter - make sure it's not in use at time). Should take care of the problem.

 

[sahid]

My XP pc device manager show mess storage device not show disk management

 

[kmham]

This is from a post elsewhere, but it worked for me:

Assuming that the drive has been properly partitioned and formatted, then this USB drive probably still needs to be enumerated for this computer. Open Control Panel. Go through Administrative Tools to Computer Management. Under Storage, click on Disk Management. Locate the USB drive and it
probably needs to have a drive letter assigned to it. Do so (Right click and change drive letter - make sure it's not in use at time). Should take care of the problem.

I too had this same issue. I see the drive now in Disk Management and it's formatting the drive as I type this. I'm using an IDE to USB cable with external power supply so I can format an old 3.5" internal 40GB hard drive via USB connection. Thank you for this post!!!

 

[misra_sk]

Hi folks,

I'm also facing a similar issue on pen drive usage. I've Windows XP pro SP 2 installed with AMD 2.5 G processor.

When I insert any USB storage device, it recognises the device but neither the drive letter is seen nor I can see the drive in disk management (incomputer management/storage).

I tried to alter the drive letter in regedit (as suggested in one of the posts above) but no luck.

Any further help in this regard will be useful.

Thanks.

Sudhir

 

[Guest]

Hello everyone,

I am having the exact same problem over here. I've tried everything that I can think of, and everything that other forums have suggested, and so far my problem remains the same. Normally I would just reformat for the easy solution, but I have too much music on my computer that I cannot afford to lose (and of course the problem prevents me from backing up my music).

Any suggestions would be much appreciated. Thank you.

 

[lhuy]

This is from a post elsewhere, but it worked for me:

Assuming that the drive has been properly partitioned and formatted, then this USB drive probably still needs to be enumerated for this computer. Open Control Panel. Go through Administrative Tools to Computer Management. Under Storage, click on Disk Management. Locate the USB drive and it
probably needs to have a drive letter assigned to it. Do so (Right click and change drive letter - make sure it's not in use at time). Should take care of the problem.

This solved my problem. Thank you very much!

 

[unamed1]

i had similar problem on vista, device manager would recognize my 3rd hard drive, but pc wouldnt show any new hdrive, i tried the above mentioned & still woulnt work, so i downloaded partition manager free program, it showed up on that, so i partitioned it with that program , now it shows up on my pc, hope it helps somebody

 

[sam999]

Using partition manager will it delete all data? I recently purchased seagate 2 GB external HDD . stored all my data on it(so unfortunate).. it worked well. Then run antivirus program after that it is not working on any of my pc. Device manager recognize HDD but my computer does not list it. I hv tried connecting another external hdd and it worked well. but this hdd does not work on any of my 3 computer. ?i hv tried using it on Xp pro and vista os. no luck.. Anyone facing such problem . Any advise from expert..

 

[v3c7r0n]

I've seen this a lot with flash drives, as well as hard drives. Sometimes I got lucky by right clicking it in the devmgr and uninstalling, scanning for hardware changes, and letting windows reinstall the drivers.

I've seen this with external hdd's a few times, and it turned out to be the controller in the enclosure crapped out (usually) or the data cable to the hdd was loose (twice).

you could always try a CD bootable linux distro and see if it can read the drive. Knoppix is my personal favorite, but PING (Part Image Not Ghost) may work too, or if you have a copy handy, good old Norton Ghost dos boot disk (which only reads 1 usb drive at one time, so disconnect your others before trying that)

 

[Finn812]

This is from a post elsewhere, but it worked for me:

Assuming that the drive has been properly partitioned and formatted, then this USB drive probably still needs to be enumerated for this computer. Open Control Panel. Go through Administrative Tools to Computer Management. Under Storage, click on Disk Management. Locate the USB drive and it
probably needs to have a drive letter assigned to it. Do so (Right click and change drive letter - make sure it's not in use at time). Should take care of the problem.

This is very helpful thanks. I'm having a similar problem like Hootie's. My 40gig external shows up in Device Manager, volume properties are populated, but shows "unallocated space 40 GB". Device is operating properly, the "Found New Hardware Wizard" even detects and installs it properly. I can hear the spindles working in the device. But it does NOT show up in My Computer, and no applications can open it. DM recognizes the volume but calls it "volume 1". It has no drive letter, and my DM has no option to "add" a drive letter, only "change drive letter". Win XP SP 2. So I started "change drive letter" and the wizard doesn't actually add a letter, it only mounts the drive. I'm not comfortable yet using a mounted volume, any suggestions on this? Mount vs Add? Thanks!

 

[Finn812]

By the way, I asked I.T. at work about this, and he said the FOT file might be corrupted (File Allocation Table), this happens especially when a device is removed without using Safely Remove Hardware. This had happened, so he's probably right. Can Windows repair this file, or do I have to go the Manufacturer? The troubleshoot button says it's operating normally.

 

[usa67us]

This is from a post elsewhere, but it worked for me:

Assuming that the drive has been properly partitioned and formatted, then this USB drive probably still needs to be enumerated for this computer. Open Control Panel. Go through Administrative Tools to Computer Management. Under Storage, click on Disk Management. Locate the USB drive and it
probably needs to have a drive letter assigned to it. Do so (Right click and change drive letter - make sure it's not in use at time). Should take care of the problem.

Thanks so very much! Worked perfectly!

 

[Guest]

I too had this same issue. I see the drive now in Disk Management and it's formatting the drive as I type this. I'm using an IDE to USB cable with external power supply so I can format an old 3.5" internal 40GB hard drive via USB connection. Thank you for this post!!!

Thank you!!!! This fixed my problem too!!!

 

[Guest]

I rebooted with the external Formac 360GB drive attached. This works for me. Attaching the drive on the allready booted laptop doesn't work for me. neither do the above solutions.

 

[Guest]

I spent hours on this and finally found the fix here:

http://seagate.custkb.com/seagate/crm/selfservice/search.jsp?DocId=207837&NewLang=en

 

[Mousemonkey]

This topic has been closed by Mousemonkey