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Inserting USB plug and play drive, but computer never recognizes it

topic posted Mon, April 14, 2008 - 2:14 AM by  BryTee 		Share/Save/Bookmark
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A computer I have does not recognize a drive that is plug and play, similarly to any USB memory sticks.
It does the two notes to say it saw a device plugged in, and devices that I have drivers for (eg a Zune) work when plugged in (so the USB hardware is ok).

It offers to search for drivers, but nothing is ever found.

Plugging these USB devices work wonderfully on my other computers (one an XP home, the other my job XP laptop).

I've searched the web and found others who have had the same problem but no responses ever offer a solution.
I searched for drivers for plug and play on USB, but nothing ever comes up, I assume because it's supposed to be part of the XP OS.
I assume the driver file(s) went missing for whatever reason, and it'd be nice to have them back again.

Anyone know where a USB plug and play driver for XP home SP2 can be downloaded from?

FYI: It's a Dell Dimension 4600, XP home (SP2 - and all the latest patches). Support ran out a while ago.
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BryTee
offline BryTee
SF Bay Area
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  • The ...
    The Right Rev Rap Masta Cornflake
    offline 32

    Re: Inserting USB plug and play drive, but computer never recognizes it

    Mon, April 14, 2008 - 7:49 PM
    ǝǝʇʎɹq sometimes I have trouble with some of the SanDisk Cruzers because they have some drivers on the unit itself that installs a "file system reader." It's a pain in the a**, especially when you try to use it on older versions of Windows (okay, okay... don't ask).

    What flavor flash is it?
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    • BryTee
      BryTee
      offline 218

      Re: Inserting USB plug and play drive, but computer never recognizes it

      Mon, April 14, 2008 - 10:15 PM
      The device calls itself:
            USB DISK
      which seemed pretty generic!

      I decided to find what a driver means (in terms of files), and I believe it means a *.CAT and *.INF file.
      So searching the existing files on my harddrive I found hundreds in c:\I386 and selected the manually point the "install the driver" menu to that folder, and while it complained that it didn't pass a Windows Logo test, I clicked "Continue Anyway", and after asking for some other *.sys file in that c:\i386 folder, it successfully installed the driver.
      Well... there seem to be two parts to the USB driver necessary, so I had to do it twice, but it worked!

      Yay!

      I hope this message helps others install their generic plus and play USB drivers, when their systems don't work.
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      • The ...
        The Right Rev Rap Masta Cornflake
        offline 32

        Re: Inserting USB plug and play drive, but computer never recognizes it

        Tue, April 15, 2008 - 11:56 AM
        ǝǝʇʎɹq driver files happen to be a specialty of mine. I develop Windows XP Embedded operating systems for my job. It's a pain but can be very satifisfying, at times. Anyway, the two files, of which you speak, are part of driver installation, but not all of it. .CAT files create devices in the pre-defined Windows "catalogue." .INF files tell Windows where the rest of the data resides and what has already been installed, like where to find .DLL or .SYS file. Generic drivers typically don't have their own .DLL or .SYS files, they use the common files already in use in Windows and append their own instructions.

        Probably more than you ever wanted to know, I'm sure. Anyway, good work. Glad you got it working.

        Love and light, dear ones.
        Rev
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