USB SATA drive says cannot find "USB to Serial-ATA bridge driver"

[ScottHW]

I am running Vista Ultimate 64 bit. I have several SATA II external drives I
use to plug into a USB port. Most of these work fine, but two of them cause
Windows to search for a "USB to Serial-ATA bridge driver", it fails to find
one and prompts for an install disk, which I don't have. If I plug these
same drives into XP it promptly says it found an "USB to Serial-ATA" device
and mounts the drive - no problem.

Any idea why this is happening ?

Thanks,
Scott

 

[Imageman]

There have been a lot of USB problems reported here, and unfortunately I had
a lot of them. Look back a few posts to my "HOTFIX Windows...... post on
11/30. Resolved all my issues. Hope this helps - IM

 

[ScottHW]

I installed that hotfix but no change. Why would Vista not be able to find
that driver but XP already has it installed ? Perhaps the short answer is XP
is more stable, but it really puzzles me. I only see one or two occurrences
of this issue anywhere on the internet, so it must be a really unusual set of
circumstances.

Thanks,
Scott

 

[Wandering]

Well, they are not the same driver, so they could easily exist in one system
and not the other. I can't help you much on this issue, but did you point
Vista at Windows, System32 to find the drivers? Does the drive come with an
installation disk, or are drivers available on the manufacturer's website?

 

[ScottHW]

"they are not the same driver,"

Of course you are right...

"did you point Vista at Windows, System32 to find the drivers? "

Yes, it ends with

Windows encountered a problem
Windows found driver software for your device but...
the system cannot find the file specified.


No software came with the drive - it was a bare bones OEM drive, no
packaging other than the shrink wrap (got it at Fry's). No driver for it on
Western Digital site either.

Thanks for trying,
Scott