Solved usb drives not working

skillednerd

New Member
Ok I have vista home premium with service pack 1.

I bought a new external hard drive with usb. western digital my book.

It wouldn't install correct drivers it so I returned it and got a maxtor OneTouch4.

Vista can't install the correct drivers for this either.

Lists it in the device manager as Unknown device with a excamation by it.

If I goto the disk manager i see it as drive 1 with no letter assigned.

When clicking to try to change it I get an error that says to refresh or reboot.

I did both and no change. The disk manager sees the correct size of disk. but I can't assign a drive letter.

In device manger under disks i do have the maxtor drive showing that its installed.
But under unknown devicices there is one listed. And it goes away if I unlug the usb to the drive.

I take the usb drive to xp and it works as soon as i plug it in.

Two different brand store bought externals didn't work.

I've uninstalled and reinstalled the disks and unknown device with no luck.

The little icon in the bottom right that says safely remove hardware when i click it shows the maxtor drive connected.

What am I doing wrong here? Any help would be greatly appreciated!!
 

My Computer

You have a driver conflict somewhere. You should list your system specs so we can try an help you track it down.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    My Ever Changing Whim!
    CPU
    Intel Core 2 Quad 9650
    Motherboard
    Intel DQ35JO
    Memory
    6GB Corsair DDR2 800
    Graphics Card(s)
    ASUS 9800GT Ultimate
    Sound Card
    Onboard
    Monitor(s) Displays
    19 inch Sceptre 19 inch Acer
    Screen Resolution
    1280x1024
    Hard Drives
    1 320GB Seagate SATA
    1 250GB Western Digital SATA
    1 200GB Maxtor SATA
    2x160GB Western Digitals SATA
    1 320GB Seagate External
    1 120GB Western Digital External
    1 80GB Westen Digital External
    1 4GB Crucial Flash Drive for Ready Boost
    PSU
    600watt Fortron Source
    Case
    Antec
    Cooling
    Fresh Air
    Keyboard
    Microsoft Natural Ergonamic 4000
    Mouse
    Razer Diamondback
    Other Info
    My main rig runs Vista Ultimate or Server 2008. Depending on which Acronis image I decide to load.
Hi, skillednerd, and welcome to the forums.

Have you considered your security software? You might have an Suite that includes a feature like USB Firewall - or, you might actually have that exact product installed somewhere as well?
 

My Computers

System One System Two

  • Operating System
    Windows 10 Pro X64 Insider Preview (Skip Ahead) latest build
    Manufacturer/Model
    The Beast Model V (homebrew)
    CPU
    Intel Core i7 965 EE @ 3.6 GHz
    Motherboard
    eVGA X58 Classified 3 (141-GT-E770-A1)
    Memory
    3 * Mushkin 998981 Redline Enhanced triple channel DDR3 4 GB CL7 DDR3 1600 MHz (PC3-12800)
    Graphics Card(s)
    eVGA GeForce GTX 970 SSC ACX 2.0 (04G-P4-3979-KB)
    Sound Card
    Realtek HD Audio (onboard)
    Monitor(s) Displays
    2 * Lenovo LT2323pwA Widescreeen
    Screen Resolution
    2 * 1920 x 1080
    Hard Drives
    SanDisk Ultra SDSSDHII-960G-G25 960 GB SATA III SSD (System)
    Crucial MX100 CT256MX100SSD1 256GB SATA III SSD (User Tree)
    2 * Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 ST31000528AS 1TB 7200 RPM SATA II Mech. HD
    Seagate ST1500DL001-9VT15L Barracuda 7200.12 1.5 TB S
    PSU
    Thermaltake Black Widow TX TR2 850W 80+ Bronze Semi-Mod ATX
    Case
    ThermalTake Level 10 GT (Black)
    Cooling
    Corsair H100 (CPU, dual 140 mm fans on radiator) + Air (2 *
    Keyboard
    Logitech G15 (gen 2)
    Mouse
    Logitech MX Master (shared)
    Internet Speed
    AT&T Lightspeed Gigabit duplex
  • Operating System
    Sabayon Linux (current, weekly updates, 5.1.x kernel)
    Manufacturer/Model
    Lenovo ThinkPad E545
    CPU
    AMD A6-5350M APU
    Motherboard
    Lenovo
    Memory
    8 GB
    Graphics card(s)
    Radeon HD (Embedded)
    Sound Card
    Conextant 20671 SmartAudio HD
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Lenovo 15" Matte
    Screen Resolution
    1680 * 1050
    Hard Drives
    INTEL Cherryvill 520 Series SSDSC2CW180A 180 GB SSD
    PSU
    Lenovo
    Case
    Lenovo
    Cooling
    Lenovo
    Mouse
    Logitech MX Master (shared) | Synaptics TouchPad
    Keyboard
    Lenovo
    Internet Speed
    AT&T LightSpeed Gigabit Duplex
Like you I have Vista Home Premium SP1 and just bought a Maxtor OneTouch 4, and have exactly the same problem with not being able to update the driver. In my case disk manager doesn't recognise the drive at all, although it is identified as OneTouch when trying to find the driver. Unfortunately that's as far as it gets.

The following article on the Seagate support site seems relevant
Self-Service.

Unfortunately my INFCACHE.1 is missing so looks like I may need to run a repair.:confused:

Does anyone know of an alternative way to obtain the driver online?
 

My Computer

To finally get this fixed I had to get help from the free Microsoft Vista support chat. They changed a registry setting and it started to work. But only the Maxtor not any others. So I had to reinstall and then everything worked just fine.
 

My Computer

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