USB Thumb Drive no showing in My computer

[Phototechman]

I have a 4gig USB thumb drive that doesn't show up on one of my Vista boxes.

It DOES have a drive letter assigned to it G:.
I can pull up cmd and type G: and i can see files on it.
I can go into explorer and type G: and access the thumb drive.

I've tired switching drive letters, removing the device from device manager, reboot and try again. Nothing lets me see this in my computer.

Also, not sure if this is relatied in any odd way. But any time I try and access \\computer\c$ explorer.exe crashes ever time. I can just access \\computer and not have issues, as soon as I try to get into the C$ it fails with any pc's in my network.

I have a HP laptop, 64bit windows vista ult. 4gigs of ram, 1tb hdd.

 

[BadBigBen]

see if this thread is of any help:

http://www.everythingusb.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=9488

NOTE: it mentions three applications that can mess with explorer...

1. Daemon Tools - sptd.sys
2. Alcohol CD/DVD burn soft - also sptd.sys
and any
3. Adobe Product that scans drives for images...

for testing, I would suggest you deinstall the apps, reboot and attach the thumb drive... if it returns then you know you found your problem...

if you have any of the first 2 installed, and wish to keep them, update the sptd driver... found here:

http://www.duplexsecure.com/downloads

download the latest version and install it before you install either DaemonTools or Alcohol...

keep us updated to the progress...



Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"

 

[linney]

Are there any Group Policy settings involved, or do other USB thumb drives show up?

Does the USB work on other Vista machines?

Have Registry Cleaners been run on this Vista machine?

How to disable USB sticks and limit access to USB storage devices on Windows systems

http://diaryproducts.net/about/operating_systems/windows/disable_usb_sticks

See if you get any clues from these. Don't be put off by the XP references.

http://www.mydigitallife.info/2007/...remove-conflict-usb-or-firewire-drive-letter/

USBDeview

http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/usb_devices_view.html

USB Device Troubleshooting

http://www.5starsupport.com/faq/usb-faq.htm

 

[Phototechman]

Hello,

I tired what was suggested with the programs that may be an issue. I don't have any of these installed, just adobe flash.

SD cards show up fine when I plug them in.

We don't have any group policies running on this pc, it was working till about 2 weeks ago. No updates on anything that may of caused it, i rarely update my PC unless its needed.

I went though the links on how to adjust the regkeys, and they didn't work.. However, I figured I try something drastic and see what happens.
So I deleted the entire mounted devices folder in regedit, rebooted and my drive is working now.

Thanks everyone for the help!

 

[BadBigBen]

thnx for posting back, especially with what fixed the issue...

glad it is working!

Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"