Camera to USB fails to spawn a "Removeable disk" Icon

[JTM]

I have WinXP Pro which will not create a removeable disk icon in My Computer
when the camera (Vivitar 3710) is connected by cable to the USB port.

System Information:
Intel P4 1.8 Ghz on a Compaq MoBo.
Promise Stripe/Raid 0 SCSI disk controller
Norman antivirus autoupdated
All Microsoft updates current

1. When the camera is connected WinXP generates a two tone low-high connect
chime and creates a safely remove device Icon on the bottom tool bar.
2. Device Manager shows no flags.
3. Device Magager shows the camera is present under Disk drives
4. Right clicking the camera in Device Manager and selecting properties then
clicking the Volumes tab brings up an empty window with a Populate button and a
grayed out Properties button.
5. Clicking the Populate button inserts "REMOVEABLE(J" Capacity "13MB in the
window and ungrays the properties button
6. Clicking this properties button opens a window like you get with a hard drive
complete with a pie chart showing the used and free space on the
"REMOVEABLE(J" drive which correctly indicates the free and used space in the
camera's memory.
7. The camera connectes perfectly on another system runniing WinME.
8. Lengthy discussion with Vivitar was not helpful other than to suggest that
the problem lies with WinXP.

In summary everything appears to be working fine with the exception that I
cannot get WinXP to create a Removeable disk icon in My Computer.

I have looked at http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=310575 and the only
suggestion that appears to be relevant would be to remove and reinstall the USB
controllers. I hesitate to do this because the reinstallation instructions are
a bit vague.

Any Suggestions would be appreciated.

Regards,

John

 

[BobS]

Are any drive letters already assigned to drive letters that would be the
letter windows would automatically assign to the camera? I have had
experiences where a USB flash drive would not get a drive letter assigned to
it automatically unless I changed the drive letter of one of my hard drives
to something else than I had it at.

Right click my computer, choose Manage, Disk Management. Windows XP will
allow you to change drive letters here, but you need to be careful so as not
to disable programs. A warning will be given anyway.

Bob

 

[JTM]

Are any drive letters already assigned to drive letters that would be the
letter windows would automatically assign to the camera? I have had
experiences where a USB flash drive would not get a drive letter assigned to
it automatically unless I changed the drive letter of one of my hard drives
to something else than I had it at.

Right click my computer, choose Manage, Disk Management. Windows XP will
allow you to change drive letters here, but you need to be careful so as not
to disable programs. A warning will be given anyway.

Bob

Thanks for the reply.

Under Device Manager WinXP apparently wants to use drive letter J: for the
Removeable Device and since I have HD drives assigned to C: and E: and CD and
DVD burners are assigned D: and F: ; it would appear that J: is available.
However G: should have been the next available drive letter. Perhaps this is
clue as to the problem. Also the fact that the HDs straddle the CD burner might
be an issue, but fixing that could be problematical.

Regards,

John

 

[BobS]

Jim,

try assigning J as the letter using Disk management as I described below.
When you first open up disk management with the camera plugged in, and not
having assigned J in device manager first, you may be able to see the camera
as an unassigned drive, and be able to permanently assign J to it.

worth a try, no?

Bob

 

[JTM]

Jim,

try assigning J as the letter using Disk management as I described below.
When you first open up disk management with the camera plugged in, and not
having assigned J in device manager first, you may be able to see the camera
as an unassigned drive, and be able to permanently assign J to it.

worth a try, no?

Bob

Jim, Sorry it took so long to reply.

Connect camera, right click My Computer>click Manage>click Disk Management>right
click Removable(J under volume and click open and I gain access to the images
on the camera. Not exactly convenient but it works.

Perhaps the fact that I am running a add-in raid scsi controller is confusing
the handiwork of the geniuses at Redmond. Also the option to assign G: (the
next available drive letter) was not available so perhaps the OS is getting hung
up on that anomaly

Thanks for the help.

Regards,

John