Removable PnP Drive problem

  • Thread starter Thread starter Robert Caldecott
  • Start date Start date
R

Robert Caldecott

I am experiencing a highly annoying problem on my Dell
8100 laptop running XP SP1. Whenever I plug in a device
that creates a new drive letter (USB camera, USB keyfob
drive, FireWire drive, etc.) Windows appears to see it -
the device appears in the "Safely Remove..." taskbar menu
and the machine beeps, but the new drive letter doesn't
appear in My Computer. In order to make the drive
accessible I have to reboot my laptop with the device
connected. Note also that if I plug in one of these
devices when Windows has started, any attempt to shut
down results in a hang (looks like in RUNDLL32).

Anyone seen this before?
 
Right click on My Computer and select Manage. On the following screen,
click on Disk Management. The removable device will appear on the right
hand side of the screen and you must assign the drive letter.
 
I tried this and the drive I tested shows up correctly as
drive E: in Disk Management. Curiously if I attempt to
change the drive letter, then the Manage app will hang
(MMC.EXE is hanging).
 
I am experiencing a highly annoying problem on my Dell
8100 laptop running XP SP1. Whenever I plug in a device
that creates a new drive letter (USB camera, USB keyfob
drive, FireWire drive, etc.) Windows appears to see it -
the device appears in the "Safely Remove..." taskbar menu
and the machine beeps, but the new drive letter doesn't
appear in My Computer. In order to make the drive
accessible I have to reboot my laptop with the device
connected. Note also that if I plug in one of these
devices when Windows has started, any attempt to shut
down results in a hang (looks like in RUNDLL32).

Anyone seen this before?
Click to expand...

You may have blocked certain drive letters from being used.
Install Tweakui for XP and unblock them or check Group Policy
(gpedit.msc)

Peter Hutchison
 
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