Same problem here with WD external drive. I have not been able to find a
solution but I have found a pain in the ass workaround. I plug the drive
into my XP machine where it is recognized and then connect it back to the
Vista machine. Vista then recognizes it for a week or two then the cycle
starts again.
"Michael Faklis" <Michael_Faklis@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:%23n2$P7kcIHA.5348@xxxxxx
Quote:
> My Vista Ultimate laptop stopped assigning driver letters to new external
> drives, whether external hard drives or thumb drives. Old thumb drives I
> used in the past are still recognized. This problem is happening on my
> new
> Western Digital 1 tb external drive, whether using USB 2 or Firewire 400.
> It is also happening on my new SanDisk 8gb U3 thumb drive and a new PNY
> 1gb
> U3 thumb drive.
> When inserted, Vista starts loading driver drivers for the device, but
> then
> claims the drive is an "Unknown Device". For the external hard drive, the
> driver software installation finds the WD My Book USB Device, USB Human
> Interface Device, USB Mass Storage Device, USB Composite Device, and then
> it
> fails to find "Unidentified Device". Device Manger shows the WD My Book
> USB
> Device under disk drives, and also an Unknown device under Other devices.
> Disk Management shows the drive, but without a drive letter. My computer
> shows nothing for this drive.
> All of these drives work fine on my older XP Pro laptop.
> Please tell me why a drive letter is not being assigned to this "Unknown
> Device" and how do I correct this problem.
>
> - Michael Faklis <Michael_Faklis@xxxxxx>
>
>
>