USB Camera and increasing drive letters

[Jim]

I recently purchased a camera that connects to a cradle for picture
transfer and charging. The cradle is plugged in all the time, but
every time I put the camera into the cradle and turn it on, WinXP
assigns a new, sequential drive letter to it. For example, when I
first installed it, the "new drive" window popped up and it was Drive
H. I removed the camera from the cradle and took some shots, then
returned it, only to have it become drive I. This happens every time
until I ran out of letters and had to use disk management to remove it
completely....then the whole thing started over again.


Any suggestions? Please keep in mind that assigning a drive letter
through "My Computer->Manage->Disk Management->Change Deive letter and
paths" does NOT work.

Thanks in advance!!

 

[John O]

Any suggestions?

Is there an "eject" or "disconnect" procedure somewhere with this camera's
driver or in the taskbar? Just a guess...

-John O

 

[Jim]

Nope. No eject button. You just lift it out of the cradle, whereupon
you hear the familiar XP "boop" that tells you you have removed
something. Once you put it back in, you have to turn the camera on in
the cradle and it appears again....one letter higher.

 

[Jim]

I tried the right click-> eject process too. Still another letter.

 

[Bob I]

Look down in the notification area (sometimes called System Tray by
folks) you should have a "Safely Remove Hardware" icon show while the
camera is attached. Double click the Icon and "Stop" the device. Then
remove it.

 

[Jim]

I've done that, and it APPEARS to remove the drive and drive letter,
however when I plug the camera back in, it's still a higher letter.
I'm up to "T:" for the third time.

 

[Bob I]

Was there software that came with camera that you installed? If so I
would try uninstalling it and any "mystery" instances that may be in
device manager, and then start again.

 

[Eli Aran]

how about first safely remove and disconnect the drive letter and then
remove the camera and finally take the usb cable out of the computer.
now after a few minutes re-plug the usb cable and put the camera back in the
cradle. do you still get another drive letter?
if you do then try this routeen in another usb slot.

 

[Jim]

I tried that with no effect. Now here's a new wrinkle...My portable
memory stick is doing the same thing! I am pretty sure there is a
system problem now. Even though I use the "safely remove hardware"
utility, the drive letters keep climbing. The only workaround I've
found is to "safely remove" ALL usb devices, go to Disk Management and
delete everything but my hard drives and CD/DVD's and then reboot.

This is not an acceptable solution though.

I am willing to try anything that anyone comes up with.

Thanks in advance.

 

[John O]

I am willing to try anything that anyone comes up with.

Thanks in advance.

Might be time for a call to MS support...

If you find an answer, please post back and let us know.

-John O

 

[Uwe Sieber]

I recently purchased a camera that connects to a cradle for picture
transfer and charging. The cradle is plugged in all the time, but
every time I put the camera into the cradle and turn it on, WinXP
assigns a new, sequential drive letter to it. For example, when I
first installed it, the "new drive" window popped up and it was Drive
H. I removed the camera from the cradle and took some shots, then
returned it, only to have it become drive I. This happens every time
until I ran out of letters and had to use disk management to remove it
completely....then the whole thing started over again.

Any suggestions?

Maybe a letter cleanup helps.

Create a system restore point first...

Then open Regedit and go to
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\
Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\MountPoints2
Delete or rename the whole MountPoints2 hive.

Then go to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices
Delete or rename the whole MountedDevices hive.

Reboot and pray

Then Windows will reassingn all letters and maybe this
fixes the problem...


Greetings from Germany

Uwe

 

[Jim]

BINGO!!

That did it! I'm not sure if it was the hack or the praying, but
everything works as one would expect now.

Uwe, if you ever get to Oregon, I owe you a beer (and we make good
ones here too!)

Jim

 

[Uwe Sieber]

BINGO!!

That did it! I'm not sure if it was the hack or the praying, but
everything works as one would expect now.

Uwe, if you ever get to Oregon, I owe you a beer (and we make good
ones here too!)

Ok, I'll remember then

 

[John O]

Uwe, if you ever get to Oregon, I owe you a beer (and we make good

ones here too!)

Last I heard they make some pretty good beer in Germany, too. ;-) But the
Oregon coast has better seafood. Yum.

-John O

 

[John O]

That did it! I'm not sure if it was the hack or the praying, but
everything works as one would expect now.

Jim,

If you still have that bad piece of registry, can you zip it and email it to
me? I run a major computer repair contest and this would make for a killer
problem.

johno at heathkit dit com.

Thanks!

-John O

 

[Uwe Sieber]

Jim,

If you still have that bad piece of registry, can you zip it and email it to
me? I run a major computer repair contest and this would make for a killer
problem.

Yes, good idea. Me too please

 

[Jim]

Unfortuneatly, after the fix worked, I deleted the renamed hives. I
did do a backup of the registry prior to the hack though. If you know
how to extract it from the backup rather than restoring it and going
through it again, I'd be happy to try.

Thanks again.

 

[Uwe Sieber]

Unfortuneatly, after the fix worked, I deleted the renamed hives. I
did do a backup of the registry prior to the hack though. If you know
how to extract it from the backup rather than restoring it and going
through it again, I'd be happy to try.

Unfortunally I only know that it's possible but
I don't know how...


Uwe