USB mass storage does not show in Windows Explorer

[pjruiz(nospaam)]

When I plug a jump drive or card reader into a USB port, the double tone
chime indicates that the device is recognized. In the Device Manager,
the 'Device status' says the device is working properly, but the device
does not show up in Windows Explorer, nor does the the device open the
Explorer automatically. I have tried disabling and re-enabling the
devices. System is a Toshiba 1405-S171 running XP. The problem occurs
both thru the low speed USB port and thru the PCMCIA USB 2.0 adapter.
The USB mouse works fine. The PCMCIA wireless notebook network card
works fine also. I have been using these mass storage devices for a
couple of years without experiencing this problem. Any help would be
greatly appreciated. Thank you.

 

[Lindsay]

Mine does the same thing. I have found if I refresh the window, the device
will appear.

 

[John Wunderlich]

When I plug a jump drive or card reader into a USB port, the
double tone chime indicates that the device is recognized. In the
Device Manager, the 'Device status' says the device is working
properly, but the device does not show up in Windows Explorer, nor
does the the device open the Explorer automatically. I have tried
disabling and re-enabling the devices. System is a Toshiba
1405-S171 running XP. The problem occurs both thru the low speed
USB port and thru the PCMCIA USB 2.0 adapter. The USB mouse works
fine. The PCMCIA wireless notebook network card works fine also. I
have been using these mass storage devices for a couple of years
without experiencing this problem. Any help would be greatly
appreciated. Thank you.

I have seen this problem when a networked drive is mapped at the next
drive letter after the CD drives. The OS wants to map the jump drive
onto the same drive letter used by the networked drive. If this is
your problem, either remap your networked drive to a higher letter or
go into Disk Management (right-click "My Computer" -> Manage) and
change the drive letter on your USB drive.

HTH,
John

 

[pjruiz(nospaam)]

I have seen this problem when a networked drive is mapped at the next
drive letter after the CD drives. The OS wants to map the jump drive
onto the same drive letter used by the networked drive. If this is
your problem, either remap your networked drive to a higher letter or
go into Disk Management (right-click "My Computer" -> Manage) and
change the drive letter on your USB drive.

HTH,
John

Thanks John. I found that the jump drive was disguised in Windows
Explorer as the 'E' network drive, which was not connected at the time.
I went into My Computer/Manage/Storage/Disk Management and found the
jump drive calling itself 'E'. I changed its drive letter to 'H', and it
now shows up in the tree as 'UDISK 20X (H)'. Great advice!

Now, do you know what I can do to make W.E. open when I insert the jump
drive? I should know how to do this, but I'm drawing a blank.

Many thanks,

Paul

 

[pjruiz(nospaam)]

Nope, that doesn't work for me. Check the reply from John Wunderlich and
my reply to him. That did the trick. Maybe it will help you also. Many
thanks, though.

Paul

 

[John Wunderlich]

Thanks John. I found that the jump drive was disguised in Windows
Explorer as the 'E' network drive, which was not connected at the
time. I went into My Computer/Manage/Storage/Disk Management and
found the jump drive calling itself 'E'. I changed its drive
letter to 'H', and it now shows up in the tree as 'UDISK 20X (H)'.
Great advice!

Now, do you know what I can do to make W.E. open when I insert the
jump drive? I should know how to do this, but I'm drawing a blank.

I'm glad it helped. You got lucky as I stumbled on this just a couple
of days ago. I have no idea how to make an Explorer Window open on
insertion.

-- John

 

[Guest]

I had the same problem, XP explorer would not show the disk. It turned out
that the disk was new and not formatted. I had to use the Computer Management
tool to create a partition, file system (I used NTFS) and assign a drive
letter.

Tony Erwood.

 

[Guest]

Great help, it worked for me too, after some time searching through threads.

 

[John Wunderlich]

Great help, it worked for me too, after some time searching
through threads.

It turns out there is a Microsoft Knowledge Base Article on this
problem:

"New drive or mapped network drive not available in Windows Explorer"
<http://support.microsoft.com/kb/297694/en-us>


-- John

 

[Guest]

I have a slightly different problem. My WD hard drive had been formatted and
used successfully before. Now, it is not recognized by Windows (My Computer,
Windows Explorer) but Device Manager says it is functioning properly. Disk
Management shows it as a brand new HD ('unallocated') and no drive letter.
I am still waiting for new advices on this problem...
TIA!