USB pen drives

mrbios · 5 Nov 2007 at 14:49

Got an issue here at work where by some pen drives wont pickup on some machines but will on others, i need some suggestions on how to fix this

the icon that a device has been detected appears in the bottom right but nothing appears in my computer, then we try another one (different brand) and it works, if theres a way of fixing this that is simple then please someone save me from this nightmare

Muffin` · 5 Nov 2007 at 14:50

purge all USB drivers?

mrbios · 5 Nov 2007 at 14:52

[DW]Muffin;10423030 said:
purge all USB drivers?

ooo your everywhere today arent you, how does one do such a thing? first time ive heard any mention of a way of doing this

need a way of doing it really that can be done via a logon/logoff script? something that doesnt require an admin to do

Muffin` · 5 Nov 2007 at 14:58

Make sure your in Safe Mode (so PS/2 or Serial {Possible as your in a State School

}) -> Device Manager -> USB Stuff -> Delete them all -> Start up in Normal still with PS/2 stuff in -> Restart back into Safe Mode, check everything is still deleted -> Go back to Normal -> Insert Pen drive

Edit*: I see your edit... no idea - Do you have a school wide OS install you can just roll out to said machine?

mrbios · 5 Nov 2007 at 15:00

[DW]Muffin;10423099 said:
Make sure your in Safe Mode (so PS/2 or Serial {Possible as your in a State School }) -> Device Manager -> USB Stuf -> Delete them all -> Start up in Normal still with PS/2 stuff in -> restart back into Safe Mode, check everything is still deleted -> go back to Normal -> insert Pen drive

damn, ok so at least we can fix it on the terminals easily enough, and in the office, but could prove a little tricky when problems crop up on the other 350 machines around the school

though its not a BIG problem, just annoying issue that gets dotted around now and then

cheers muffin

EDIT: oh and no serial keyboards here

Proliant servers, hp switches, 200 of 350 are brand new computers.......and no more money in the budget ^_^

Muffin` · 5 Nov 2007 at 15:02

See my edit, with 350PC's it would suprise me if you didn't! :eek:

mrbios · 5 Nov 2007 at 15:06

[DW]Muffin;10423135 said:
See my edit, with 350PC's it would suprise me if you didn't!

i think we'll just have to fix it on the terminal servers occasionally and on our office machines, the rest of the school will just have to suffer

sidethink · 5 Nov 2007 at 15:34

Used to have this problem in my last place of employment because they started mapping their network drives at E.

If you inserted a USB stick it would try and grab E as well, leaving you with something of a problem.

The on-the-job workaround was to go into Disk Management and reassign the drive letter for the USB stick. The lesson to learn is not to map your drives starting on E.

I doubt this is whats happening in your case unless some of your users or machines map E as a drive under certain circumstances.

mrbios · 5 Nov 2007 at 15:42

sidethink said:
Used to have this problem in my last place of employment because they started mapping their network drives at E.

If you inserted a USB stick it would try and grab E as well, leaving you with something of a problem.

The on-the-job workaround was to go into Disk Management and reassign the drive letter for the USB stick. The lesson to learn is not to map your drives starting on E.

I doubt this is whats happening in your case unless some of your users or machines map E as a drive under certain circumstances.

that is a possibility if the drive chooses the letter it wants rather than the machine (if this is possible)

as for example on my office machine i have letters C, F, J, D, G, H, O, P, R, S, T, V, Y all mapped to drives/shares and mine often has issues with pen drives

stoofa · 5 Nov 2007 at 16:25

Just to add to what Sidethink has said.
Basically a USB device installs itself before any network/mapped drives.
If no drive letter is available then it won't assign itself a drive letter and will appear not to work.
Sidethink was mentioning specifically the "E" drive, but it will happen on any drive letter.
If you want an easy life you'll always make sure there is at least one drive letter available between where your local drives end and your network/mapped drives begin for USB devices.
Otherwise you've got the hassle of re-assigning drive letters each time.