Vista - External Hard Drive (USB MassStorage Device missing?)

I am having the same trouble with my WD external hard drive. It works great
on my XP desktop. I recently bought a new laptop with Vista. I had to install
drivers and updates several times for it to finally see my 1GB thumb drive.
Then after all I had to manually direct the computer to the driver for the
thumb drive. Every once in awhile it will see my external hard drive but more
times than not it won't. Who knows if my Vista machine will see either my
thumb drive or my WD drive next time I start it up.
If anyone has any ideas on how to deal with this issue please let me know.

"Kev50027" wrote:

> I am having the same problem, It worked fine on XP, and even on Vista using
> my laptop, but it cannot find any drivers (it shouldn't need any anyway) on
> Vista Ultimate on my desktop. This is a serious issue, and either Microsoft
> or Western Digital needs to fix it soon, because this is frankly absurd, and
> I'm frustrated.
>
> I've tried contacting Western Digital, and they have not responded.
>
> "Lincoln 6 Echo" wrote:
>
> > Hi,
> >
> > I am trying to connect my Western Digital external hard drive over USB port
> > and it seems vista cannot find the Usb MassStorage Device Driver
> >
> > Any thoughts? Even scanning my other partition with XP is not of use (it
> > says file not found).
> >
> > I thought MS would include at least these trivial drivers???
> >
> > Petar
> >

jw93 wrote:
> I am having the same trouble with my WD external hard drive. It works great
> on my XP desktop. I recently bought a new laptop with Vista. I had to install
> drivers and updates several times for it to finally see my 1GB thumb drive.
> Then after all I had to manually direct the computer to the driver for the
> thumb drive...

Well, you may have more than one problem. The problem of not finding
USB drivers sounds like your C:\windows\inf\INFCACHE.1 is corrupted and
needs to be deleted. (You will need to edit its file permissions to
give Full Control to the Users group before you can delete it.)

If you are also seeing "...One of the devices attached to this computer
has malfunctioned and Windows does not recognize it..." then the fix
I gave you above may not work, but I'd like to know.

I deleted the INFCACHE.1 file and that didn't help. I don't want to do any
drastic measures because it is reading my thumb drive and my printer,
keyboard and mouse just fine. With my WD external hard drive I am still
getting the window that says "...One of the devices attached to this computer
has malfunctioned and Windows does not recognize it..." I am beyond knowing
what to do. I tried going to the store where I bought the ext. hard drive and
they don't know anything about the troubles Vista is having with reading USB
devices. Thanks for you response and I really hope someone comes up with
something soon.

"Don" wrote:

> jw93 wrote:
> > I am having the same trouble with my WD external hard drive. It works great
> > on my XP desktop. I recently bought a new laptop with Vista. I had to install
> > drivers and updates several times for it to finally see my 1GB thumb drive.
> > Then after all I had to manually direct the computer to the driver for the
> > thumb drive...
>
> Well, you may have more than one problem. The problem of not finding
> USB drivers sounds like your C:\windows\inf\INFCACHE.1 is corrupted and
> needs to be deleted. (You will need to edit its file permissions to
> give Full Control to the Users group before you can delete it.)
>
> If you are also seeing "...One of the devices attached to this computer
> has malfunctioned and Windows does not recognize it..." then the fix
> I gave you above may not work, but I'd like to know.
>
>

has anyone gotten a fix for this yet? i'm having the same frustrating
problem with vista and an external hard drive enclosure going thru a usb 2
port. it actually worked the very first time then crashed. after rebooting
nothing. first it says can't find the usb drivers then when i point it to
the system directory it says loading but still fails, and the enclosure shows
as not working in the device manager. not sure how to get this to work but
i'm fairly certain it's a vista specific problem as i didn't have this
problem with xp. any ideas would be appreciated. thanks.

"Kev50027" wrote:

> I fixed the issue by installing updated motherboard drivers, and I could find
> and use the drive, then I restarted and got a BSOD (blue screen of death) and
> perpetual re-starting before Vista even started.
>
> I did a repair install, then restarted and the same thing happened. I got
> sick of it, and formatted and re-installed XP. I'm done with Vista for now,
> until Nvidia releases some finalized drivers for my 8800 GTX, and motherboard
> (nForce 680i). I'm really frustrated with Nvidia and Creative over driver
> issues with Vista, it's really absurd.

Hi, useless message I know, but I have the same problem...

Vista Ultimate OEM (all legit and paid for with hard earned money...),
everything up to date... At first my external USB2 harddrive worked
like a charm (it's a LaCie Brick) but now Vista always asks for
drivers.

Same problem with my IPod :/

All work fine under XP or MacOSX...


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Hi again, replying to myself... Posting this in case people stumble on
this thread while looking for information on this damn external USB
drive / iPod problem with Vista...

After trying everything listed here I found a more complete solution
and it's now working 100%

Turns out it *was* a corrupted driver database problem, but deleting
the infamouse infcache file was not enough.

I just unplugged all USB drives, deleted all the files mentionned in
the link, rebooted, plugged again, when vista asked for drivers I
pointed it to c:\windows\system32 and this time it worked! I only add
to do it once per peripheral. The whole hardware process seemed faster
and less sluggish too, I guess cleaning this driver database really
helped. It didn't do a thing to my other otherwise functionning
peripherals too, so it doesn't seem dangerous.

Here's the link to the instructions on how to totally delete the driver
database :

http://forums.logitech.com/rss/messa...essage.id=3755


If you're desesperate like I was, try it, it worked for me

(also no need to boot on install CD to delete the files... just use the
same method as explained for infcache : right click, properties,
security, and change permissions so that user as total access)


Enjoy Vista USB freedom!!!

(yeah I'm really happy after spending hours rebooting...)

HTH


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Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!

It's never going to see it until you go buy the Ultimate edition.

The so called cheaper editions, (Home Premium, etc.) won't recognize a
dynamic drive.

Sure, their might not be anything in the documentation, or other usual
information sources that will tell you this, (before you make your purchase).
It's not only a fact, but a pretty well kept secret as evidenced by the fact
that I've posted this information already and MS pulled it off the board.

So, unless you're ready to drop some more bucks, you're SOL gringo.

But hey, this is America, the greatest country in the world, for making a
fast, dishonest buck (that is).

It's called conservitive free enterprize and If you don't like it, you can
leave and go to Iraq, or Cuba.

Brought to you by . . . The Republicans and yes the beloved party of the
working people . . . The lay me down and bend me over DEMOCRATS.



"Lincoln 6 Echo" wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I am trying to connect my Western Digital external hard drive over USB port
> and it seems vista cannot find the Usb MassStorage Device Driver
>
> Any thoughts? Even scanning my other partition with XP is not of use (it
> says file not found).
>
> I thought MS would include at least these trivial drivers???
>
> Petar
>