Unable to connect to external USB drive

  • Thread starter Thread starter akita
  • Start date Start date
A

akita

When I try to connect an external USB hard drive or a USB memory stick to my
laptop, Vista throws up a message saying: “Windows needs to install driver
software for your Unknown Deviceâ€. I let Vista search, but Vista cannot find
the required driver.

However, when I connect the same external USB hard drive or a USB memory
stick to my desktop PC, also running Vista Ultimate, Vista has no problems
recognizing the device and installing the required driver automatically and
without throwing up any messages.

I suspect that some Vista service(s) on my laptop might be disabled or not
functioning properly, but I cannot find out which one could be the cause.
Perhaps someone here could point me in the right direction.

All help would be much appreciated.
 
Instead of letting Vista search, try pointing it to the \windows\inf folder.
If that works, post back for further info on a permanent fix.
 
GTS said:
Instead of letting Vista search, try pointing it to the \windows\inf folder.
If that works, post back for further info on a permanent fix.
--
Click to expand...

Thanks for that. Tried it, but Vista still comes up with "Windows was unable
to install your Unknown Device"

I've come across this problem some where some time ago, and I'm pretty sure
the issue was to do with some system service that was disabled or not
properly configured.

Is there a way to reset - in one go - all system services to their default??

Thanks again for all help.
 
frj111 said:
Try running System Information for Windows.

Download from here:

'SIW | Download' (http://www.gtopala.com/siw-download.html)

This will quickly tell you a lot about your system.
Click to expand...

Dead link for me using Vista's IE7 and UAC (Internet Explorer cannot display
the webpage).

BTW, why would I need this? Shouldn't Vista's inbuilt System Information
applet be sufficient?

Or does this program show me what services are required / disable /
malfunctioning?

Thanks for all help.
 
frj111 said:
Try running System Information for Windows.

Download from here:

'SIW | Download' (http://www.gtopala.com/siw-download.html)

This will quickly tell you a lot about your system.
Click to expand...

OK, downloaded SIW and run it. The external USB drive shows up correctly
under Storage Devices, but it seems Vista itself cannot display it in Windows
Explorer. Since no driver was found for the device, I guess that’s what is to
be expected. Since Vista on the laptop couldn’t install the device
automatically, unlike Vista on my desktop PC, I still suspect some system
service issue.

Does anyone know if there is a way to reset all system services – in one go
- to their default state?

I guess that would show whether my suspicion is correct or not ...

Thanks again for all help.
 
frj111 said:
The following is given with no warrantee what so ever.

I was able to get rid of a crippled partition on one of my SAT drives.

Boot to a windows 98 se floppy disk. Be sure legacy USB is enables in
ROM-BIOS.

Using FDISK try to select the USB drive. If you can see it and it is
an NTFS partition you can remove it by using the delete non-DOS
partition task.

Be careful doing the wrong thing with this tool can turn your system
into a smoking pile of rubble.
Click to expand...

Thanks, but perhaps you misunderstood: My issue is with connecting EXTERNAL
drives, such as USB handy drives or hard disks.

Besides, your idea “might†work under Win 98, on an outside chance perhaps
even under XP (so I doubt it), but it’s not going to do much good under Vista.

Apart from that, I have no intentions of removing a drive or partition, but
gaining access to it – in other words I want to make a visible (and usable)
in Vista’s explorer so that I can read from or write to it. Hence I need
Vista (this is a Vista only issue) to load its default driver so that it can
recognise the EXTERNAL USB drive.

Thanks for all.
 
John Lechmanik said:
Have you looked at this hotfix??? It solved my problems with Vista
recognizing USB devices and properly installing drivers....


http://support.microsoft.com/kb/940199/en-us
Click to expand...

Thanks for that, John. But I had tried that one prior to posting here.
Unfortunately it didn't fix my problem.

The odd thing is, as I discovered last night, if I cancel out of the missing
driver dialogues, restart the system with the USB device plugged in, again
cancel out of the attempt to install a driver (as Vista loads), Vista
recognises the USB device perfectly OK. Go figure ...

Also, I've found a batch file to reset all of Vista's services to their
default state, which subsequently made no difference to my USB device issue.
At least I can now rule out any system service issues.

The only other thing I can think of is a recent software change. I did
update Acronis True Image in the past few days. Since that software
introduces software drivers, there could be a chance that the update screwed
up something. Though I never had any problems with Acronis software in the
past ...

I have a previous image backup from a few weeks back and will load that one
in the coming days. Perhaps that will solve my USB device issue ...

Anyway, thanks for all.
 
frj111 said:
My point (that I did not make very clear) is that I have encountered
problems that Vista by itself simply will not solve. When that happens
often times a tool from an earlier operating system will in fact provide
a solution. I have for years unlocked windows installs to which the
user has forgotten the password. The tool I used was a LINUX boot
floppy.

Good luck
Click to expand...

Yes, I see your point.

Meanwhile I have been testing this issue a bit more. Recently I updated
Acronis True Image to its latest incarnation. Since I had made a backup image
prior to installing the new Acronis TI version, I reverted back to that one.
And wouldn’t you know it? Bingo, all is back to as it should be.

So, seems to me that either something went wrong with the Acronis
installation, or perhaps this latest version isn’t as Vista compatible as
Acronis would have us believe.

Shame, really; I do like Acronis True Image and think it’s an excellent
backup solution.

Fortunately one doesn’t need to install the whole program if one has an
Acronis restore boot CD since that does the backup and restore routine
externally (from the OS) just fine. Though one does need to install the
program if exploring previous image backups/archives is a priority.

Thanks to all for the help and advice.

Consider this threat closed.
 
Have you tried the repair from the Install DVD? Or opening up the Device
Manager and manually removing all the USB devices and then let Windows
re-discover them when you reboot?

Something to consider.....
 
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