Vista - USB to IDE drivers-Help !

Hello everyone,

About a year ago I purchased an external hard drive media player from a firm called Envizage.

This has been working fine with my Vista HP 64x install up until SP1.
Now I get a- problem installing USB to IDE drivers-message.
Then I get various suggestions-search computer, search online etc.
This fails and I get a suggestion to install disk (there wasn't one) or contact the vendor/ manufacturer.
I've tried 'phoning them but got no reply. I've just emailed them but I'm getting the impression that they no longer exist.
This is a disaster for me as all my movies, music and photographs are on that drive and Vista can no longer access it.
I can't quite remember but I think there is a Samsung or Maxtor 400GB drive in the media player enclosure.

Can anyone help me with this? As I say it was fine up until last week when I insalled SP1.

Thanks, John Williams

hello
did you try looking on your motherboard install cd? the drivers may be there. also
if it worked with out sp1 installed then maybe uninstall sp1 so you can use the drive
till you can find a work around for it.
mike

Thanks for your reply Scrooge.
I can't seem to find my mobo disk. May have lost it in a recent move. Do you suspect that SP1 may have disabled the drivers?
I got a reply from the vendor which simply says that no drivers are required for Vista.

I'm reluctant to uninstall SP1. This might cause more problems surely; with my 8800GT drivers for example.
This is a bit of a disaster. Others must be getting this problem surely? I can't believe there isn't a workaround.I may contact MS as they are offering free support for SP1 related problems but if anyone knows a solution I would be eternally grateful.

Thanks, John

You can always try a generic driver,
This will have a small chance of working but you never know;
Drivers for USB and USB 2.0 Drive Enclosures

Thanks Roy. I had a look at that site and it doesn't look likely as you say. They are talking about Windows 98 etc.
I think I'll try that as a last resort.
I've posted a support request to MS so maybe they will help.
If not this is a disaster.

Thanks, John

system: Q6600, Asus P5N-E SLI, Gigabyte 8800GT OC, 4GB OCZ RAM, Samsung Spinpoint 500GB, Thermaltake Toughpower 650 watt PSU, Vist HP 64x +SP1

hello John
try this out and see if it helps you . first do you no what motherboard you have in your
system? if no go here CPUID . download cpuz and run it.then look under motherboard. it will have the info you need . then goto the manufacters web site.
download all the latest drivers for vista and your board that you find.update your system with the new drivers and see it that helps. if that don't help then recheck your bios settings to see if maybe something got somehow changed in there.
mike

Scrooge, Roy.
Thanks for your input. I got this fix from MS who are offering free support for SP1 related problems:

"Step 1.Show hidden folders
=========================
1. Click the Start button, Click "Computer" -> "Organize" -> "Folder and Search Options".
2. Click the "View" tab. Under "Hidden files and folders", click "Show hidden files and folders".
3. To display other hidden files, uncheck the "Hide protected operating system files (Recommended)" check box.

Step 2.Rename the USB inf relate files
=========================
1. Click the Start Button, type "%windir%\inf" (without quotation marks) in the Start Search box, and press Enter.
2. Please locate "Infcache.1" file, right click on it, click Properties, select Security tab, click the current User Account name, click Edit, check Full Control checkbox as Allow, then all the checkbox will be checked as Allow, click OK, click OK.
3. Right click the Infcache.1, select Rename, please type infcache.1-bak in the text box, press Enter. Then Infcache.1 would be renamed to infcache.1-bak.
4. Please locate all the files beginning with "oem", for example: oem0 and oem.PNF. Please follow the steps above to rename all the files.
5. Please restart the computer.

Please plug in a USB device to test the results."


This is from the very well named Terrykim Jin of Microsoft. I tried it-pretty complex and scary but I now have a fully functioning external hard drive.
By the way his mail was worded it seems this fix would work for any USB device problem so pass it on.
Thanks again for your help, John