Where is USB info stored?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Fred Hebert
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Fred Hebert

Does anyone know where XP stores the information about USB flash drives?

I have to update some software on 900 flash drives. I created a batch file
so I could just stick the drive in, press the space bar and the new files
would be copied to the drive.

I thought about a problem. XP "remembers" drives, because if I insert a
drive that was previously inserted, it remembers the drive letter. I
figure it has got to be going in the registry somewhere.

This is probably not a problem for the average user, but I am concerned
about causing problems with the information from 900 USB drives.

I would like to be able to back up the key before I get too far, then clean
out the "excess" data when I am done.

Can anyone help?
 
I think XP will "remember" the drive properties, i.e., iPod, flash, etc. but
the drive letter should remain the same.

You can view "hidden" hardware devices to check and clear out. No doubt
there is a better means via the registry.

I think if you try a few, the problem you envision may not materialize.

Good luck.
 
There's a little more to it than that. Windows stores the serial number
of every individual drive and can tell them apart.

I have 900 identical drives, yet every time I put a new one in, Windows
starts that "New hardware found" junk which takes 30 or so seconds.

I decided to plug in several at a time into my USB hub to save time. My
thought was that by the time I got the last one in, the first one would
be ready to go.

When plugging in multiple drives, the first one got E:, the next got F:
and so on. This seemed reasonable, but I had a problem with my batch
file and had to reprogram the last 3. That's when I found out that that
Windows was remembering the drive letters. The drive that got F: was
always F: whenever I plugged it into any port on my system.

It was then that I realized that Windows must be storing the USB serial
number and the last drive letter it had on my system. Is is not on the
drive, because if I plug the drive into a different system, I get the
"New Hardware" thing and it gets the first available drive letter on that
system, say E:.

If I take it back to my system it still gets F:.

This tells me it is stored somewhere on the system.
 
Ah! Good points.

And I thought I had headaches sorting out a few iPods and nanos.

I look forward to a knowledgable solution.
 
How Windows Assigns, Reserves, and Stores Drive Letters:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/234048/

HTH-Larry

There's a little more to it than that. Windows stores the serial number
of every individual drive and can tell them apart.

I have 900 identical drives, yet every time I put a new one in, Windows
starts that "New hardware found" junk which takes 30 or so seconds.

I decided to plug in several at a time into my USB hub to save time. My
thought was that by the time I got the last one in, the first one would
be ready to go.

When plugging in multiple drives, the first one got E:, the next got F:
and so on. This seemed reasonable, but I had a problem with my batch
file and had to reprogram the last 3. That's when I found out that that
Windows was remembering the drive letters. The drive that got F: was
always F: whenever I plugged it into any port on my system.

It was then that I realized that Windows must be storing the USB serial
number and the last drive letter it had on my system. Is is not on the
drive, because if I plug the drive into a different system, I get the
"New Hardware" thing and it gets the first available drive letter on that
system, say E:.

If I take it back to my system it still gets F:.

This tells me it is stored somewhere on the system.
Click to expand...


Any advise given is my attempt to show appreciation for all
the excellent help I've received here but I'm no MVP so it
may only apply NUGS (Normally, Usually, Generally, Sometimes :)
 
Fred said:
Does anyone know where XP stores the information about USB flash drives?

I have to update some software on 900 flash drives.
Click to expand...

You can use a Registry Snapshot tool to make an 'before - after'
comparison, like RegSnap:
http://lastbit.com/regsnap/default.asp

I would simply create a system restore point before and restore
it after.


Greetings from Germany

Uwe
 
Good idea. I was just hoping someone knew the answer. Since it doesn't
look like I am going to get a quick answer, I am going to just export the
registry to a temp file. Plug in a few drives, export it again and do a
diff on the two files.

This should work.

Actually I just did it before posting this message...

Some numbers:

Registry text file size = 106MB!!!
Pages to print = 18408

The info is stored in several places throughout the registry. It stores
all kinds of info about each device. I think I can clean it up, but it
is not going to be simple. Actually I am going to keep these files. If
all this extra stuff doesn't cause problems (e.g. slow performance) I
will probably just leave it alone...

Thanks,
Fred.
 
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