USB storage devices showing up in 'Drive Management' but not in 'My Computer'...

peanutismint · 7 May 2006 at 13:33

Ok, let me begin by saying I don't know if this is in the correct forum as I don't really know where the problem lies, but I imagine it'd be with Windows. I'm running XP Pro btw.

SO, for the past few weeks, whenever I've connected any form of data storage device to my computer (via USB), it has failed to show up in 'My Computer' as an external drive or 'mass storage device' with its own drive letter like it used to. We're talking stuff like compact flash cards in an external USB card reader, my HiMD minidisc unit and a memory stick in my PSP. If i check in 'Disk Management', the drives usually show up, but I can't access them unless I assign them a drive letter, and it won't let me assign a drive letter without rebooting. After a reboot, whatever I had connected still doesn't show up in My Computer, but i can then access it through Disk Management, right-clicking on the drive and then clicking 'open'.
The problem compunds in that if anything that's not disk management wants to access my external peripherals, such as my PSP media program or my minidisc media program, they can't see the drive as it's not in My Computer.

Does anyone have any idea why my computer might have stopped automatically assigning drive letters to external things as they're connected?

peanutismint · 8 May 2006 at 13:20

I'm running through USB 2.0 ports. I've tried running it through my hub, straight into the back of my computer, both ports, I've even tried plugging it into the front access USB2 ports, but nothing works. I've made a little picture to further emphasize/explain my problem:

(Click to enlarge)

peanutismint · 8 May 2006 at 13:34

what ist ums?

peanutismint · 8 May 2006 at 14:08

Sorry, I think you've got the wrong end of the stick. It's not an MP3 player, I don't own one. It's just several external mass storage devices in their respective devices, e.g. a Compace Flash card in a card reader, a Sony Memory Stick in a PSP, and a MiniDisc in a HiMD unit, all of which used to show up as drives with their own letters in My Computer, up until a few weeks ago.

peanutismint · 8 May 2006 at 14:22

hahah i hear that. My unattended custom XP DVD makes it a breeze, but I just got everything the way I like it! Does anyone know (totally off-topic now) of any good backup/system image programs? And how much do they effectively back up, i.e. do you still have to reinstall all of your programs/change all of your windows settings to just how you like them, or will it do those too?