Can't see Flash Drives

[aldago]

I'm using WinXP Pro SP2. I did a non-destructive no-reformat reinstall and everything

works fine except that I can't see my flash drives anywhere (My Computer, Windows

Explorer...) although they were working fine before the reinstall. I can see the flash drives

(different brands, different sizes) in "Computer Management" and I see that there is no

drive letter assigned. I can assign a drive letter and then open the drive and view the files

while in "Computer Management" but can't see the drive aywhere else. When I reboot,

the drive letter assigned goes away. I have no mapped network drives and the A, C and D

(dvd ) drives are present and accounted for. I'm assigning the next drive letter, E, and have

even assigned higher letters to no avail. I've run Chkdsk /f, checked to make sure that I had administrator rights to modify the registry, made restore points after assigning a drive

letter, rebooted until I'm blue in the face. No success.
Can't use the drives if I can't see them. Anybody have any ideas?????

 

[kkullot]

Does this happen when you plug it into all available USB ports or only certain ones?

I know on my laptop it doesn't work on one side but the other it works fine. Wierd.

 

[linney]

Some things to look at.

AutoPlay intermittently does not detect removable media or digital cameras

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;822660&FR=1&PA=1&SD=HSCH

6952 » AutoFix freeware can fix problems with Windows XP Autoplay.

http://www.jsiinc.com/SUBN/tip6900/rh6952.htm

USB device does not function after connecting device to a Windows XP Service Pack 2-based computer or to a Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2005-based computer

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;870893&FR=1&PA=1&SD=HSCH

314634 - Windows XP Does Not Detect Your New USB Device

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;314634&FR=1&PA=1&SD=HSCH

When you install Windows XP Service Pack 2, the USB 2.0 drivers do not appear to update

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=873169#appliesto

XP Home won't recognize Lexar Jump Drive
thread779-1100358

why doesnt xp pro recognize usb drives after installing SP1?
Thread779-837163