USB hard drive detection problem

[buscuitboy]

I have a 2.5" laptop drive in an external USB enclosure kit that I have been using with various PCs with no problems. However, this one PC (at work) will not fully recogonize it or something. When I plug it in, it apparently recogonizes it because it is listed in the system tray under the "Safely Remove Hardware" section/icon (bottom left). However, it never assigns a drive letter to it like it does automatically with other PCs.

I am at work and don't have admin privledges, but that isn't the issue cause other USB devices work fine (Archos & Sansa mp3 players/storage) on this one PC. I can select it from the "Safely Remove Hardware" section to stop and remove it. I just can't seem to get the PC to assign a drive letter to it so I can access its contents. And I really can't do any diagnostics cause again, I don't have admin rights. I even tried this USB hard drive unit on a different desktop here at work and it works perfectly fine.

Any idea what may be going on here?

[shizzzon]

have you or can you check device manager and see if there is an exclamation point next to the drive?

You may need drivers, for example, and this pc may not have default drivers for this device.

[Nude_Lewd_Man]

Hi, it sounds like the letter the computer wants to assign is already in use - which confuses it slightly. Do you have any network drives that are mapped...? It could be that the USB drive is getting assigned the same letter, meaning that you can't access it properly.

For example, if your computer has C: and D: drives as HDDs, and also has a CD/DVD drive using E:, your computer will normally try to use F: next - but often companies use this as a network drive, being shared from a server.

As you don't have admin rights on the computer you won't be able to get into computer management to check/change it, so you are left with a couple of options...

1) Get someone who has administrative rights (either on that computer, or on the domain- if applicable) to right-click "My Computer" --> "Manage" and check in the "Disk Management" area and check.

2) If your network drives are mapped through a script, then you can just right-click the drive letter that could be interfering --> "disconnect". This should then allow the USB device to get the letter properly when you plug it back in - if it doesn't automatically gain it. If the mapping was done manually, then you can do the same thing, but make a note of where it maps to, so that you can re-connect it later or give the same location a different drive letter. Just be aware that sometimes, if done manually, this could potentially use a different set of credentials to what you normally use...

The only other alternative I can think of would be to plug another USB device in first, which would attempt to use the letter that it is trying to use already, and then plug the desired USB drive in....

[buscuitboy]

OK, there is no exclamation point in the device manager so I know its not that. As stated, I'm thinking the letter the computer wants to assign it is already in use too. There are several network drives as well. Currently, this is what is in My Computer:

- C: Drive = main hard drive with XP
- D: Drive = DVD drive
- E: = My Archos USB Jukebox player/UBS hard drive (under 'devices with removable storage')
- F: G: = my Sansa mp3 player (under 'devices with removable storage')
- company designated/assigned network drives H: L: O: Q: R: S: T:


Now, after I plug those all in and then this problem hard drive, no letter is ever assigned to it. If it is one of the comapny network drive letters that is conflicting with it, I don't want to disconnect them cause I don't really know how to get them back & they are needed.

I thought about maybe trying to change some of the network drive letters to possibly help the situation, but again, I don't have admin rights so I can't do that either.

I'm thinking the problem/conflict may be the H: drive since that is essentially the next in order, but no luck. And again, even if I don't have any of the 'removable storage' devices plugged in (E, F, G), it still won't assign it one of those letters either.

[Nude_Lewd_Man]

The computer sees the removable device drive itself as a device and (rather than caring about whether there is media in it or not) assigns the same letter to it.

You are right in thinking that it would use the next available letter, which in your case would be the H: drive. If your netowork drives are mapped by a logon script, or batch file, then you should be able to right-click and disconnect the network H: drive, this would then enable you to use this (you might need to refresh the screen) as the USB drive that you've been trying to get to work on your machine.

As I said, it would be so much easier to get someone who has admin rights on the computer (whether this is as a Domain or local admin account) and change the letter through computer management....

[buscuitboy]

Well, I determined that it was indeed the H: drive that was interferring/conflicting and causing the problem. All other computers in my department area actually had similar problems. It just depended on which order I plugged the 3rd device in, but whatever device was next in line to take "H:" as a drive letter assignment, it would have problems. I always thought it would just try to obtain the next letter (I: in this situation), but I guess not. I'm sure it has to do with the way the company drives are mapped or set up.

That being said, I decided to just call our tech support dept. I didn't really tell them the full reason since I wasn't sure how they would react to me wanting to plug in 3+ USB devices (the reason for the hesitation in the first place), but they actually had no problem sort of re-assigning my H: drive as a K: drive.

Actually, I should say more like "duplicating" cause what really happens now is that whenever I boot up any dept. PC, I now have BOTH a H: & K: drive that are mapped to the same location. I guess they essentially maybe added another script of some sort that points to the same spot.

To fully solve my dilemna, what I need to basically do is "disconnect" the H: drive if I want to hook up a USB device that will take that letter. The PC will then properly assign H: to a USB device. And the K: drive is still connected to the same source & all is good.