Vista - Vista Generic USB storage devices not recognised

Several USB storage devices (3 flash drives and 2 external disk
drives) that were recognised automatically by Windows XP have failed
to be recognised by Vista. Vista requests a driver from the
manufacturer's CD which, of course, doesn't exist.

I can work around it thus:
Tell Vista to look for a driver in C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore,
Vista installs a driver for a USB mass storage device. It then
requests another driver, and when pointed to the Driverstore again,
Vista recognises a Disk drive. And yet once more, whereupon it
installs a Generic volume and declares the device installed.

Any clues as to what may be wrong?

[Running Vista Business on an HP nx7400 laptop - labelled as Vista
capable BTW.]

Same problem here, i have four stiks and tree harddrives, none is working.

"Frazer Jolly Goodfellow" wrote:

> Several USB storage devices (3 flash drives and 2 external disk
> drives) that were recognised automatically by Windows XP have failed
> to be recognised by Vista. Vista requests a driver from the
> manufacturer's CD which, of course, doesn't exist.
>
> I can work around it thus:
> Tell Vista to look for a driver in C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore,
> Vista installs a driver for a USB mass storage device. It then
> requests another driver, and when pointed to the Driverstore again,
> Vista recognises a Disk drive. And yet once more, whereupon it
> installs a Generic volume and declares the device installed.
>
> Any clues as to what may be wrong?
>
> [Running Vista Business on an HP nx7400 laptop - labelled as Vista
> capable BTW.]
>

I had the same or a similar problem, I pointed it to C:\Windows and just let
it trawl through it and it installed all the needed drivers.
Are you saying that after you did this to C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore
that they still don't work?

"Frazer Jolly Goodfellow" <no-spam@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:Xns98EDED46B8506frz@207.46.248.16...
> Several USB storage devices (3 flash drives and 2 external disk
> drives) that were recognised automatically by Windows XP have failed
> to be recognised by Vista. Vista requests a driver from the
> manufacturer's CD which, of course, doesn't exist.
>
> I can work around it thus:
> Tell Vista to look for a driver in C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore,
> Vista installs a driver for a USB mass storage device. It then
> requests another driver, and when pointed to the Driverstore again,
> Vista recognises a Disk drive. And yet once more, whereupon it
> installs a Generic volume and declares the device installed.
>
> Any clues as to what may be wrong?
>
> [Running Vista Business on an HP nx7400 laptop - labelled as Vista
> capable BTW.]

"Rebus" <mail-noreply@googlemail.com> wrote in
news:WuKdnat2CZwatGzYnZ2dnUVZ8v6dnZ2d@bt.com:

> I had the same or a similar problem, I pointed it to C:\Windows
> and just let it trawl through it and it installed all the needed
> drivers. Are you saying that after you did this to
> C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore that they still don't work?

They work OK.

It's just that it seems a very backward step to have to go through
this clunky ritual for devices that are recognised automatically by
Windows XP. The drivers are clearly present in the Driverstore
folder, but Vista doesn't seem to know that!

>
> "Frazer Jolly Goodfellow" <no-spam@hotmail.com> wrote in message
> news:Xns98EDED46B8506frz@207.46.248.16...
>> Several USB storage devices (3 flash drives and 2 external disk
>> drives) that were recognised automatically by Windows XP have
>> failed to be recognised by Vista. Vista requests a driver from
>> the manufacturer's CD which, of course, doesn't exist.
>>
>> I can work around it thus:
>> Tell Vista to look for a driver in
>> C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore, Vista installs a driver for a
>> USB mass storage device. It then requests another driver, and
>> when pointed to the Driverstore again, Vista recognises a Disk
>> drive. And yet once more, whereupon it installs a Generic
>> volume and declares the device installed.
>>
>> Any clues as to what may be wrong?
>>
>> [Running Vista Business on an HP nx7400 laptop - labelled as
>> Vista capable BTW.]
>
>

I agree - Even with DOS you could easily set up a 'Path' statement to point
to any particular folder for Windows to look at by default - This is pretty
basic stuff... :-)

"Frazer Jolly Goodfellow" <no-spam@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:Xns98EE6C9D64BC0frz@207.46.248.16...
> "Rebus" <mail-noreply@googlemail.com> wrote in
> news:WuKdnat2CZwatGzYnZ2dnUVZ8v6dnZ2d@bt.com:
>
>> I had the same or a similar problem, I pointed it to C:\Windows
>> and just let it trawl through it and it installed all the needed
>> drivers. Are you saying that after you did this to
>> C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore that they still don't work?
>
> They work OK.
>
> It's just that it seems a very backward step to have to go through
> this clunky ritual for devices that are recognised automatically by
> Windows XP. The drivers are clearly present in the Driverstore
> folder, but Vista doesn't seem to know that!
>
>>
>> "Frazer Jolly Goodfellow" <no-spam@hotmail.com> wrote in message
>> news:Xns98EDED46B8506frz@207.46.248.16...
>>> Several USB storage devices (3 flash drives and 2 external disk
>>> drives) that were recognised automatically by Windows XP have
>>> failed to be recognised by Vista. Vista requests a driver from
>>> the manufacturer's CD which, of course, doesn't exist.
>>>
>>> I can work around it thus:
>>> Tell Vista to look for a driver in
>>> C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore, Vista installs a driver for a
>>> USB mass storage device. It then requests another driver, and
>>> when pointed to the Driverstore again, Vista recognises a Disk
>>> drive. And yet once more, whereupon it installs a Generic
>>> volume and declares the device installed.
>>>
>>> Any clues as to what may be wrong?
>>>
>>> [Running Vista Business on an HP nx7400 laptop - labelled as
>>> Vista capable BTW.]
>>
>>
>

I have done all this and I still get teh parameter is incorrect. Sometimes I
can even see 1 drive before it disappears. HELP

"Frazer Jolly Goodfellow" wrote:

> Several USB storage devices (3 flash drives and 2 external disk
> drives) that were recognised automatically by Windows XP have failed
> to be recognised by Vista. Vista requests a driver from the
> manufacturer's CD which, of course, doesn't exist.
>
> I can work around it thus:
> Tell Vista to look for a driver in C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore,
> Vista installs a driver for a USB mass storage device. It then
> requests another driver, and when pointed to the Driverstore again,
> Vista recognises a Disk drive. And yet once more, whereupon it
> installs a Generic volume and declares the device installed.
>
> Any clues as to what may be wrong?
>
> [Running Vista Business on an HP nx7400 laptop - labelled as Vista
> capable BTW.]
>

I had the same problems - vista would not recognise any usb mass storage device (new or old). Seems that the problem was a conflict caused by the software for my Netgear SC101 still being installed on my machine when I upgraded. I removed the software and vista was able to see my USB devices

i have the same problem with my Sandisk Cruzer Micro 4GB . i use Vista
Ultimate on both my Laptop and Desktop. on my laptop as soon as i insert the
USB card Vista detects it and assigns it as a Driver. but on my Desktop it
prompts for drivers? Even if i direct the installer to "C:\Windows" every
time i re-insert the USB card , it prompts for driver for an "Unidentified
Device" which again i have to point the installer to "C:\windows" for it to
work!

is there anyway of finding out what's causing the conflict? perhaps a driver
installer? or another USB Device? i have unplugged all my USB devices but
this still happens or perhaps a driver installer?

can anyone show me how i can check for conflicts properly? thanx

My solution this problem , unistall all applications of NOKIA , now works
fine all devices usb reconognised by Xp , (mouses wireless works fine, usb
acteck portatil speakers, hub usb 2.0 generic, and several hard disk external
usb)

Erick, sorry my english

"Frazer Jolly Goodfellow" wrote:

> Several USB storage devices (3 flash drives and 2 external disk
> drives) that were recognised automatically by Windows XP have failed
> to be recognised by Vista. Vista requests a driver from the
> manufacturer's CD which, of course, doesn't exist.
>
> I can work around it thus:
> Tell Vista to look for a driver in C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore,
> Vista installs a driver for a USB mass storage device. It then
> requests another driver, and when pointed to the Driverstore again,
> Vista recognises a Disk drive. And yet once more, whereupon it
> installs a Generic volume and declares the device installed.
>
> Any clues as to what may be wrong?
>
> [Running Vista Business on an HP nx7400 laptop - labelled as Vista
> capable BTW.]
>

I have the same problem. I use a NEW notebook Acer TM8215 wlmi (that seems to
work well) with Vista Ultimate. The usb devices (hard disk or pen drives)
work randomly also if they are usually shown in the device manager. 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. I do not think my problem is hardware related. Any solutions?