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

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

Its no help but I have exactly the same problem...

"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

When vista asks you for the drivers, try specifying C:\Windows (or where you
installed vista) with the subfolders option enabled.

Marco

"DuckRyder" <DuckRyder@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:A36853AC-A38B-4D60-AFC9-0E1D35A4B3DA@microsoft.com...
> Its no help but I have exactly the same problem...
>
> "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

Same, here. One of my two Maxtor external drives, which originally worked
fine is now listed as "local drive" and can't be accessed.

"Marco Dalli" wrote:

> When vista asks you for the drivers, try specifying C:\Windows (or where you
> installed vista) with the subfolders option enabled.
>
> Marco
>
> "DuckRyder" <DuckRyder@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:A36853AC-A38B-4D60-AFC9-0E1D35A4B3DA@microsoft.com...
> > Its no help but I have exactly the same problem...
> >
> > "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
>
>

Did that already and is says best drivers are already installed!!

"Marco Dalli" wrote:

> When vista asks you for the drivers, try specifying C:\Windows (or where you
> installed vista) with the subfolders option enabled.
>
> Marco
>
> "DuckRyder" <DuckRyder@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:A36853AC-A38B-4D60-AFC9-0E1D35A4B3DA@microsoft.com...
> > Its no help but I have exactly the same problem...
> >
> > "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
>
>

I had a similar problem with my Onetouch Drive - ie the OS saw the device but
wouldn't allocate a drive letter. I eventually found it was because I had a
password security option set on drive - so had to install maxtor secuirty
prog on a system with XP, attached the maxtor drive and turned off security.
Vista then saw the drive normally - I haven't had the nerve to switch the
password option back on!

"BAldie" wrote:

> Did that already and is says best drivers are already installed!!
>
> "Marco Dalli" wrote:
>
> > When vista asks you for the drivers, try specifying C:\Windows (or where you
> > installed vista) with the subfolders option enabled.
> >
> > Marco
> >
> > "DuckRyder" <DuckRyder@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> > news:A36853AC-A38B-4D60-AFC9-0E1D35A4B3DA@microsoft.com...
> > > Its no help but I have exactly the same problem...
> > >
> > > "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
> >
> >

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
>

Sorry, I can't believe there's no solution! Thanks.

"luca" wrote:

> I have a similar problem with a NEW notebook Acer TM8215 wlmi (Vista
> Ultimate) and all sort of usb devices. Hard disk or pen drives work randomly
> (also if they are usually shown in the device manager). Often Win searchs for
> the driver without being able to install it. The system is not able to remove
> them properly (the light keeps on flashing).
> There are a lot of threads about Vista and usb problems. The Microsoft patch
> did not help. Some times the devices work but with a lot of errors. I can
> not believe it (Vista is very expensive). I do not think my problem is
> hardware related. Any solutions?

I have a similar problem with a NEW notebook Acer TM8215 wlmi (Vista
Ultimate) and all sort of usb devices. Hard disk or pen drives work randomly
(also if they are usually shown in the device manager). Often Win searchs for
the driver without being able to install it. The system is not able to remove
them properly (the light keeps on flashing).
There are a lot of threads about Vista and usb problems. The Microsoft patch
did not help. Some times the devices work but with a lot of errors. I can
not believe it (Vista is very expensive). I do not think my problem is
hardware related. Any solutions?

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.