Problem with USB Drive

  • Thread starter Thread starter Tom Hall
  • Start date Start date
T

Tom Hall

OS is XP Pro SP2.

I recently added a 160gb USB drive to my system as a data backup drive. It
has its own power supply. Whenever I turn it on, Windows goes through the
usual Autoplay routine and then pops up a window that says "This device
contains more than one type of content. What do you want Windows to do?".

99.9% of the time I want it to do nothing, but I still have to dismiss the
window. There is no box at the bottom to indicate that I want to perform
this action every time this particular situation is encountered.

When I inserted DVDs with mixed content, I only had to dismiss this window
once. From that time on, Windows remembered my choice for mixed content and
did what I wanted it to do.

Is there any way I can get the same thing to happen with this USB drive?
I've tried Microsoft's Autofix utility but apparently it's unable to
diagnose or fix the problem. Here's the log it produces:

AutoFix [V5.2.3790.67] Time [2007-11-22 11:54:52] Microsoft Windows Version
[5.1 (Service Pack 2) <2600>] Test [The Shell Hardware Detection service
is running.] - Instance [N/A]: Result [AutoStart Setting]: OK
Result [The Shell Hardware Detection service is running.]: OK Test
[Policies] - Instance [F:\, Drive Type: 3]: Result
[HKCU\...\Policies!NoDrives]: OK {Absent} Result
[HKCU\...\Policies!NoDriveAutorun]: OK {Absent} Result
[HKCU\...\Policies!NoDriveTypeAutorun]: OK {Present} Result
[HKLM\...\Policies!NoDrives]: OK {Absent} Result
[HKLM\...\Policies!NoDriveAutorun]: OK {Absent} Result
[HKLM\...\Policies!NoDriveTypeAutorun]: OK {Absent} Result [Driver
level policies]: OK { HKLM\...\Services\!Autorun (Absent) <Allows>
HKLM\...\Services\\Parameters!Autorun (Absent) <Allows>
HKLM\System\CCS\Enum\...!AlwaysEnable (Absent) <Not set>
HKLM\System\CCS\Enum\...!AlwaysDisable (Absent) <Not set> } Test [Drive
Notification] - Instance [F:\, Drive Type: 3]: Result [Legacy
Notification]: OK Result [AutoPlay V2 Notification]: Problems {
Service (Silent) Shell (Deaf) } >> Repair << [Autoplay V2
Event] Step: No steps to take. Result: This AutoPlay setting
cannot be fixed. Either the device is malfunctioning, or the wizard cannot
determine the problem. >> Required action: The wizard found problems but
cannot fix them -> None
The drive is not malfunctioning as far as I can tell. It starts up, accepts
copy commands, etc. and I can dismount it from the icon in the system tray
just fine.


Tom
 
Hi Tom,

Someone may have your answer, sorry I don't. However, you can turn off
Autoplay for USB Flash Drives if you prefer.
http://www.rohos.com/how-to-change-action-with-removable-media.htm

--
All the best,
SG

http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Usenet
Tom Hall said:
OS is XP Pro SP2.

I recently added a 160gb USB drive to my system as a data backup drive. It
has its own power supply. Whenever I turn it on, Windows goes through the
usual Autoplay routine and then pops up a window that says "This device
contains more than one type of content. What do you want Windows to do?".

99.9% of the time I want it to do nothing, but I still have to dismiss the
window. There is no box at the bottom to indicate that I want to perform
this action every time this particular situation is encountered.

When I inserted DVDs with mixed content, I only had to dismiss this window
once. From that time on, Windows remembered my choice for mixed content
and
did what I wanted it to do.

Is there any way I can get the same thing to happen with this USB drive?
I've tried Microsoft's Autofix utility but apparently it's unable to
diagnose or fix the problem. Here's the log it produces:

AutoFix [V5.2.3790.67] Time [2007-11-22 11:54:52] Microsoft Windows
Version
[5.1 (Service Pack 2) <2600>] Test [The Shell Hardware Detection service
is running.] - Instance [N/A]: Result [AutoStart Setting]: OK
Result [The Shell Hardware Detection service is running.]: OK Test
[Policies] - Instance [F:\, Drive Type: 3]: Result
[HKCU\...\Policies!NoDrives]: OK {Absent} Result
[HKCU\...\Policies!NoDriveAutorun]: OK {Absent} Result
[HKCU\...\Policies!NoDriveTypeAutorun]: OK {Present} Result
[HKLM\...\Policies!NoDrives]: OK {Absent} Result
[HKLM\...\Policies!NoDriveAutorun]: OK {Absent} Result
[HKLM\...\Policies!NoDriveTypeAutorun]: OK {Absent} Result [Driver
level policies]: OK { HKLM\...\Services\!Autorun (Absent) <Allows>
HKLM\...\Services\\Parameters!Autorun (Absent) <Allows>
HKLM\System\CCS\Enum\...!AlwaysEnable (Absent) <Not set>
HKLM\System\CCS\Enum\...!AlwaysDisable (Absent) <Not set> } Test [Drive
Notification] - Instance [F:\, Drive Type: 3]: Result [Legacy
Notification]: OK Result [AutoPlay V2 Notification]: Problems {
Service (Silent) Shell (Deaf) } >> Repair << [Autoplay V2
Event] Step: No steps to take. Result: This AutoPlay setting
cannot be fixed. Either the device is malfunctioning, or the wizard cannot
determine the problem. >> Required action: The wizard found problems but
cannot fix them -> None
The drive is not malfunctioning as far as I can tell. It starts up,
accepts
copy commands, etc. and I can dismount it from the icon in the system tray
just fine.


Tom
Click to expand...
 
Hi Tom,

Doesn't matter, the link I provided disables Autorun on the USB ports no
matter what you plug in. Is this something like you have?
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-Details.asp?EdpNo=2329300&sku=M501-1220

I use this a lot and never seen the message you are getting, BTW, another
search for Vista says: open control panel and type "autoplay" into the
search bar, now just change software to "take no action". DO the same for
any other media types you want:
Not running Vista on this machine so cannot test it.
 
Doesn't matter, the link I provided disables Autorun on the USB ports no
matter what you plug in. Is this something like you have?
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-Details.asp?EdpNo=2329300&sku=M501-1220
Click to expand...

No. I have a Spire 3.5" USB 2.0 eSATA Mobile Disk.
I use this a lot and never seen the message you are getting, BTW, another
search for Vista says: open control panel and type "autoplay" into the
search bar, now just change software to "take no action". DO the same for
any other media types you want:
Not running Vista on this machine so cannot test it.
Click to expand...

I'm not running Vista either. OS here is XP Pro SP2, as I said in my
original post.

Sorry, but I'm looking for a light switch and you're telling me to unscrew
the light bulb... :-)


Tom
 
Hi Tom,

Oh well, sorry I don't have the light switch you're looking for. Maybe
someone will come along and help you out
 
Hi Tom,

Oh well, sorry I don't have the light switch you're looking for. Maybe
someone will come along and help you out
Click to expand...

Thanks for your suggestions. The fact that no one else has offered any
information suggests to me that such a "light switch" may not exist. I've
saved your suggestions and if nothing else is forthcoming, I will probably
give your suggestion a try. I did the search you recommended and found
about 5 or 6 occurrences of "NoDriveTypeAutoRun" with several different
values (0x00, 0x91, etc.) and figured that if the current values of those
keys are not all the same, then changing them all to be the same might be
risky.

I try not to muck around in the registry unless there's clearly no other
alternative, as sometimes registry changes lead to unforeseen side-effects.
Thanks again.


Tom
 
I've saved your suggestions and if nothing else is forthcoming, I will probably
give your suggestion a try.
Click to expand...

I implemented the suggestion you provided and it seems to work. A couple of
occurrences of NoDriveTypeAutoRun were already set to 0xdd. Out of 7 that I
found, 4 needed changing. The other 3 were already set to the desired
value.

Thanks again for your help.

For the sake of curiosity, though, I wouldn't mind knowing if any other
solution exists.


Tom
 
Hi Tom,

Glad you got it fixed although you had to edit the Registry yourself. If I
find that magic switch you are looking for I'll post back. Most likely if
one finds something like that I'd imagine it will only be a program someone
has put together to automatically make the NoDriveTypeAutoRun settings for
you in the Registry.
 
Tom said:
For the sake of curiosity, though, I wouldn't mind knowing if any other
solution exists.
Click to expand...

Well, my solution exists but I don't know why I don't get the Autoplay
prompts from my two USB drives.

Maybe it's because I use them all the time, so power them on before
booting XP? So XP just finds them, doesn't get notified that they've
just been mounted?

I also played around with some of the Autoplay settings and disc
insertion notifications. I don't know what combination worked for me.
 
I implemented the suggestion you provided and it seems to work. A
couple of occurrences of NoDriveTypeAutoRun were already set to 0xdd.
Out of 7 that I found, 4 needed changing. The other 3 were already set
to the desired value.

Thanks again for your help.

For the sake of curiosity, though, I wouldn't mind knowing if any
other solution exists.


Tom
Click to expand...

Look for USBDLM (USB drive letter manager) by Uwe Sieber and from the
same author, the program autorunsettings.

http://www.uwe-sieber.de

Between the two of these, you can control what letters USB drives get and
whether they are autorun or what is autorun on them, based on many
criteria (ID of drive, ini file on drive itself...).
 
Look for USBDLM (USB drive letter manager) by Uwe Sieber and from the
same author, the program autorunsettings.

http://www.uwe-sieber.de

Between the two of these, you can control what letters USB drives get and
whether they are autorun or what is autorun on them, based on many
criteria (ID of drive, ini file on drive itself...).
Click to expand...

Thank you! This appears to be the "light switch" I was looking for. I had
no idea that TweakUI could be used as well. (It tells me that Autoplay is
not enabled for removable drives, which I assume is the result of the
registry tweaks I performed manually.)


Tom
 
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