Drive letters not assigned automatically

[ProfessorU]

I'm working on a WindowsXP home laptop for a friend.

When I connect a USB device(e.g. Kodak camera or USB disk), the device is detected and installed, but is not assigned a drive letter. Using the disk manager I can manually assign it a drive letter, and then I can view the drive in explorer. In addition to being a pain in my butt, I don't want my friend to have to do this every time she attaches a USB device.

Anyone experienced this before? All help appreciated.

[Nix]

What SP are they running there are a few USB related things fixed in SP2 http://support.microsoft.com/kb/811113/en-us

[ProfessorU]

The professor will check tonight, but I do remember that automatic updates were enabled.

[ProfessorU]

SP2 installed.

I also noticed that the drive letters aren't automatically 'recycled', that is, if I add the USB drive at e:, then disconnect, then reconnect, "e: is already mapped to a network share or a local path". I think this is a symptom of the same problem. (If I reboot, then the drive letters start over again)

After using the Administrative tools icon all this time, I noticed it includes a hammer! Inside joke at MS, I'm sure

All help is appreciated.

[Nix]

Notice that your C drive is FAT32 and the USB drive is NTFS.

You can't view NTFS drives from an OS installed on FAT32.

Otherway round is fine but not the way you have it.

[ProfessorU]

Well it appears there is limited support for NTFS since I can browse it after I assign a drive letter.

Is there a NTFS migration tool?
It's a good thing IBM doesn't make computers anymore, or I'd give them a piece of my mind for installing XP on FAT32!

[ProfessorU]

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/pro...onvertfat.mspx

That answers one question.

I still can't figure out why the Kodak camera isn't recognized.

[Nix]

See this thread http://discussions.virtualdr.com/sho...d.php?t=197964 although now I'm confused as normally from a Fat32 you can't see NTFS but maybe that's WIn95, 98, 98SE and WinMe

Possibly XP can see both regardless of what file system it is installed in.

[ProfessorU]

Yes, you're right about that, nix.
I did the convert and we're still in the same spot. The device exists but is not assigned a drive letter. And the camera only seems to want to work when I uninstall and reinstall everything.

Maybe this is a USB configuration issue? Thanks for the help so far.

[ProfessorU]

^bump^

I'm looking for new ideas before I sit through an overinstall. All help is appreciated.

[XOR]

See if you can map the devices to a folder on your harddrive, they will show up in Explorer and can be shared to make them available across a network (if needed).

1. Plug your USB drive into your computer.
2. Go to Disk Management.
3. Select the USB drive and select Change drive letters and paths.
4. Click Add, and select Mount in the following empty NTFS folder.
Browse to a folder or create one here.
5. Your USB device has a folder on the hard drive and can be accessed from there.

If you unplug the USB device the folder will still be there but you will not be able to open it.

[HAN]

I'm no authority but I have seen this issue quite often. In my cases, the failure to assign separate drive letters has always been because of mapped or networked drives. Windows just can't see these drives for some reason and assigns a drive letter already in use. (I assume the place in the registry where the drive letter assignments are stored is not where the mapped/network drive letters are recorded.)

The solution that always worked for me was to manually re-assign the USB drive to an available letter and it has always seemed to stick when used after that. I remember reading somewhere that XP remembers manual drive letter assignments best when using "M" through "Z". I have no idea if this is correct but it's easy enough for you to try it next time.

Another less obvious answer is that you can also build the USB drive as a folder. This is especially handy if you want to share the drive consistently (with the same name etc.) over a network. (This only works when the PC is formatted as NTFS) http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.c...id=1676&page=9

Last, IMO, I would dump the camera link up all together. I bought an SD card reader for $15 or $20 and use it as another USB flash drive. IMO, much smoother than the camera thing. Plus, you can apply the same setup approach with it as you do with the regular USB drive.

Hope this helps some...


**EDIT**

Late again!!!!!

[ProfessorU]

Okay, so I tried to map the USB key to c:\JonsUSB and I get the error box attached here. (and yes, it's an empty directory).

I also tried mapping it to M:, but still, when it is removed and reattached, it comes back without a drive letter.

I'm beginning to think that something is corrupt in the logical drive manager files. When I reconnected, the USB drive didn't reappear, even with a refresh. Then I tried to close the mmc and it crashed. I had to relauch the computer management console and when I did, of course, there still was no drive letter.

It's possible this is more difficult because this is XP home....

Thanks for all the help so far!

*ps*
When I right click on the drive in the computer management console and hit explore, it says there is no drive by that letter. But then, if I right click and hit explore again, it opens up an explorer window.
It gets wierder, too!
The explorer window opens up on the drive and then immediately refreshes onto My Computer! Then I can click 'back' and I'm brought to the USB key. But the USB key doesn't appear in My Computer! I can only navigate to it if I know the drive letter and enter it in the address bar.

I think the card reader is a good idea, but if the USB drive isn't working right, it's likely that the card reader would have the same problem.

The real bummer is that my friend no longer has her windows installation CD (or this laptop never came with one). I don't see a directory/drive with the windows install files, either.