can't read any removable drives

[ch]

Computer with XP Home Edition has stopped reading any
removable drives, including USB flash drives and the CDRW
drive. Symptoms on CDRW are that disk spins up but
Windows Explorer never lists a drive label and states
that disk contents are 0 bytes and 0 files. Symptoms on
USB flash drives are that I get a message that the disk
is not formatted. Flash drives and CD disks work OK on
other computers. There are no other indications that
something is "wrong". Other USB devices such as scanner
and printer work OK. In Device Manager there are no
yellow or red warning flags. I have uninstalled and then
re-installed drivers for USB hubs and for CD-drive. I
did a Windows XP Repair installation - did not fix the
problem. Since I was able to boot to the XP CD in order
to do the Repair installation, that means that the
computer and CD drive work - it's the XP O/S that has
screwed up. What else can I do to fix this problem?

 

[Guest]

Dear writer,
I have a simlar problem,
Did it show up after installing service pack 2? i also
recently installed norton antivirus 2005. So i do not know
what could be the problem.
regards, Jarno K

 

[ch]

I installed SP2. The problem appeared when I was at the
SP1 level. I installed SP2 and the problem was still
there so, given all the bad press about SP2, I
uninstalled SP2. The problem remains. I have Norton
Antivirus 2004. I suppose I could un-install that and
see what happens, although I don't understand what NAV
has to do with reading drives.

I have discovered that I can read a CD if the disk is in
the drive when the computer is turned on and boots up.
However, once I eject that disk I cannot read another
disk.

I have spent many hours on this problem - it's driving me
crazy!


ch

 

[ch]

Finally found the solution to the problem. There is some
unfortunate (for me) interaction between Norton AntiVirus
and Ahead Software's InCD that causes removable drives to
become inaccessible. Symantec has a knowledge base
article that describes the steps to undo the mess. To
find the article, go to Symantec.com / Support and search
their Knowledge Base for "Drive <x:> is not accessible.
Incorrect function". Read the article and follow the
recommended repair steps closely. Symantec recommends
getting latest updates for Nero and InCD from ahead.com.
I downloaded (from ahead.com) the InCD-CleanTool program
and used it to completely wipe InCD off my computer.