Vista - External USB Hard Drive not working, Vista asking for drivers

I tried the hotfix.
When I plug in my USB HD, I no longer get the message that driver is not
found, checking online for a driver etc.
HOWEVER, the device is still NOT RECOGNIZED by Vista. In Device Manager, it
still has a yellow caution symbol next to the device, and the drive does not
show up in My Computer.

Any other suggestions? I'm seriously considering downgrading back to
Windows XP as a result of this. This is NOT the first time that this has
happened. I have the same problem with MANY of the USB Flash Drives I use
too, rendering them useless to me.

Not sure what the problem is, but this is definitely not acceptable from an
OS. As much as I like the new look & feel, and new functionality of Vista,
I'm really left with no choice but to go back to XP so that I can use my
peripherals etc., unless there is still a way to fix this situation.

"Cal Bear '66" wrote:

Are you connecting the USB drives directly to computer or to a USB hub? If
not it may be the HUB driver that is the problem.

Also you might try the following Hot fix.

http://support.microsoft.com/default...en-us%3b936003



"Ali R" <AliR@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:5055067A-0FD0-44FE-A35F-F75A3D7BAE01@xxxxxx

Yes, I tried connecting directly to the computer. Also, that hotfix you
suggest is not intended for the problem that I'm experiencing. I did see a
hotfix for the problem that I am experiencing, but that also did not work.

Other suggestions?? Really on the brink of switching back to XP if I can't
resolve this soon.

"JW" wrote:

Gee. Why not just get an external drive case that will use the default
drivers in Vista correctly. All cases are NOT equal! The electronic IDE to
USB interface within the case may not be designed correctly or may, in fact,
be defective.

I have an external Maxtor that will not work with Vista. I'll be damned if I
am going back to XP because of it. I just use my 500 gig Seagate hard drive
that is mounted in my Adaptec external box. I have not found a single
instance where it will not function as it is supposed to.

--


Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
(For email, remove the obvious from my address)


"Ali R" <AliR@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:258D8224-FE84-4FD2-8527-E539285CE2BD@xxxxxx

Oridnarilly I'd agree with you to some extent. However I experience the same
problem when I plug in a large number of different USB flash drives. Of the
3 flash drives I own, my Vista only recognizes one. All 3 were detected with
no additional drivers back when I had XP. In addition, I've tried all of the
flash drives my friends own and NONE of those have worked either. From the
no name brands, right up to the Kingston and Sony.

For that reason, I don't think it's a problem with my HD itself, but rather
something related to Vista's interraction with the USB jacks.

Ali

"Richard Urban" wrote:

What services have you possibly turned off to "save" resources? Have you
disconnected all other USB devices and then tried your USB drive in various
other ports, rebooting in between tests?

I have a scanner that is "very" selective about which USB port it is
connected to. It is NOT Vista! It is the hardware implementation of the M/B
and the ports interaction with Vista. What works with XP had to be changed
physically to function with Vista. Is it a Vista problem in my case? NO! NO!
NO! I have another computer with the same M/B that does ***NOT*** exhibit
the same problems. - this on a clean install. On one computer the scanner
works in a certain port. On the other computer - nothing.

I shut down both computers and switched M/B's. The problem transferred to
the computer that showed no problem previously. Yes. It took me a few hours
to perform this check but no big deal. I am retired and have plenty of free
time.

On further checking I found that there were vastly different resistance
readings from that particular USB ports pins - to ground - when the two
computers were compared electrically.

There is so much you can do in troubleshooting. That is why a good tech gets
more per hour than a poor tech (usually). (-:

--


Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
(For email, remove the obvious from my address)


"Ali R" <AliR@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:A57F0851-1D65-44AA-A939-709181A857DE@xxxxxx

I've experienced a similar problem with one of my external hard drives, except it doesn't seem to work properly on any Vista system, only XP systems. I got a Western Digital MyBook Essential Edition 250GB external hard drive in March, and since the very beginning, it takes over a minute for any Vista system to recognize it and have it usable. Yet, on every XP system I've tried it on, it's recognized and usable within 10 or so seconds, which I consider acceptable. In June, I got a SimpleTech 500GB external hard drive, and in Vista, it's recognized within 10 seconds like it should be. All of these months, I still haven't figured out what's different with the Western Digital hard drive. I exchanged it within the first week because of its problems, but the new one had the same problems. I had exchanged several emails with both Western Digital and Microsoft, and neither could give me an answer. WD said that they don't write the drivers for their hard drives, and Microsoft eventually said that there may be something wrong with Microsoft's drivers and that they'll try to fix it. That was back in April, and there's been no fix. I've tried several different ports on my computer and monitor, but it still takes over a minute to work with each one, while the SimpleTech hard drive works right away in the same ports. Any ideas?

So I FINALLY solved my problem! I sent a request to the HD manufacturer,
Lacie, and they solved my problem on their first shot!! I was rather
impressed, seeing how much back & forth was going on here.

Anyway, in my case, the problem was a missing usbstor.inf file under the
C:\Windows\Inf folder. I just searched my computer for it, copied to the
Windows\Inf directory, and voila, everything works! Even all the USB flash
drives that weren't working initially are all functional now.

If anyone else is having a similar problem with their USB devices, I suggest
they try this quick fix first.

Ali

"Richard Urban" wrote:

I've been experiencing the same problem with usb storage devices for
the last few weeks and have visited numerous forums discussing it.
After having no joy I decided to take a look around my system folders
and have now got these devices working again. While looking around I
discovered 2 points of interest:

1. In C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository I had two folders
named "usbstor.inf" but each one had a different set of numbers
attached to the end of the folder name. - could this be where part of
the problem lies?
2. When i looked in my C:\Windows\inf folder i discovered the
usbstor.inf and usb stor.pnf files were missing - this definitely had
to be an issue.
Once I discovered these anomalies, I proceeded to copy the pnf and inf
files from the most recently updated usbstor.inf folder to C:\Windows
\inf. I then went back to the update driver wizard, pointed to the inf
folder and what do you know but they all started working again.

Worked for me!
Hope this helps.

..::HERPETON::.

Unfortunately, I have the usbstor.inf file in the right place, and my problem continues. In fact, my problem occurs even after a clean install of Vista and even after I use Windows Update to fully update my system. Something's definitely not right, though, if XP has no problems with the hard drive while Vista does. I'm not sure how the SimpleTech drive avoids the problem that the Western Digital one cannot seem to--I'd imagine they use the same or a similar driver, after all, since they physically work similarly.