USB CF reader gets wrong drive letter and won't work

[Guest]

Hi all,

I have an external USB Compact Flash card reader plugged in. When I start
up my machine (XP with SP2 installed), the reader is assigned drive letter
I:. Explorer sees it as drive I:, Device Manager recognises a USB mass
storage device is plugged in, but Disk Management (inside XP's Computer
Management tool) does not see or list the drive.

The light on the reader is on, but when I put a CF card in, no autoplay
happens and when I click on it in explorer, I get the 'please insert a
disk..etc.' message. My other drives are A: (floppy), C: (hdd), D: and E:
(cd drives). So for some reason at startup, F:, G: and H: are being skipped
for this device.

Now, if I do a 'safely remove hardware', unplug the reader and plug it
straight back in again (no restart required), the device is recognised,
assigned drive letter F: and works fine.

Anyone know what's going on here and how I fix it? Any help gratefully
received!

Paul

 

[Guest]

The USB drive will have a small Index file placed on it by the manufacturer
to avoid possible conflict with other drives on many PCs. It is done by
default. You can change the drive letter, but why? As long as it works and
also avoid possible future conflict, live with it! To activate the AutoPlay
feature,
click My Computer, rightclick the "I" drive, Properties, AutoPlay tab.
There you can select what Action you wish. BTW: Did you know you can
also put music/MP3 files on it and play them?

 

[Guest]

Hi Byte,

Granted - with some fiddling about after start up, I can make it work, but
what I don't get is why on startup it has drive I: and won't work, then I
unplug and replug and it gets drive F: and works. I would hope and expect
that the device would get drive F: and work from the word go.

I have autoplay all setup for it, but the long and the short is that when
its initially got drive I:, it's just plain dead.