trouble with USB storage device drivers

[Ken]

On my new Dell system running xp professional, when I
attach a USB device (CompactFlash reader or Western
Digital external drive) it goes through the new hardware
wizard and looks for a driver. Then it says that
installation failed because it couldn't find a driver,
and I can't access the devices. These devices work
automatically on my other computers, including a Dell
laptop an HP system and a Micron system, and the
documentation with the hard drive says that there isn't a
driver and that it should show up automatically. Any
suggestions?

 

[Cari \(MS-MVP\)]

Are the USB ports working correctly with other devices?

 

[Guest]

They work with a USB mouse, which is the only other USB
device I've tried.

 

[Nathan McNulty]

Right click on My Computer, click Manage, click Disk Management and see
if the drive appears there and if you can do anything with it. You may
need to edit the registry to clear out the previous attempted install of
the device in order to properly install it which we will go over if
necessary.

 

[Guest]

The devices do both show up in Disk Management with
question marks beside them.

 

[Nathan McNulty]

Right click on them, click Uninstall, then reboot. If it doesn't work
after that, try this after unplugging the devices:

Open the Registry Editor (Start-Run-regedit). Navigate to
HKLM\System\CCS\Enum\USB and look for the folder containing information
about the problematic devices. Now right click on the folder labeled
Vid_Xxxx that contains the information about the problematic devices and
click Permission. Allow full control of the key, then right click on it
and delete it. Now reboot and try again

 

[Guest]

The drives do appear in Disk management under Other
Devices, with question marks beside their names. I have
the option of Uninstalling, which I have tried. That
makes them not show up in Disk Management anymore, but
the same thing happens the next time I attch the devices.

 

[Nathan McNulty]

Disconnect the devices and open the Registry Editor (Start-Run-regedit).
Navigate to HKLM\System\CCS\Enum\USB and look for the folder
containing information about the problematic devices. Now right click
on the folder labeled Vid_Xxxx that contains the information about the
problematic devices and click Permission. Allow full control of the
key, then right click on it and delete it. Now reboot and try again