Windows XP can't see USB flash drive?

T

travbrad

[H]ard|Gawd
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Jan 11, 2005
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I'm having a very strange problem with my 2nd PC right now. For some reason my flash drive isn't showing up in My Computer/Windows Explorer. The strange thing is I can see it in Disk Management (under control panel>computer management).

So I tried assigning it a new drive letter, but it still doesn't show up in My Computer. I can actually access the files on the flash drive if I Right Click > Open from disk management, but if I Right Click > Explore it doesn't open. I can also access it from a command prompt after assigning it a drive letter. Also when I assign it a drive letter (say P), then remove it from the computer, and put it back in. I have to reassign it a new drive letter to access it, because P is no longer available. :confused:

Any ideas on what the problem could be? I'm not having problems with any other USB devices, and I reinstalled the USB drivers just to be sure. The flash drive works fine on other PCs, plus I tested 2 different drives so I know it's not a bad flash drive... I'm running Service Pack 3 with all the latest updates btw, if that makes any difference.

Any help would be greatly appreciated :)
 
I've had problems where USB flash devices, not necessary thumb drives, will not be detected in XP under a Limited Account. Is the account limit?
 
Is the flash drive formated in fat, fat32, ntfs, or that new format that Vista uses? The new format does not work with XP.
 
The only account on the computer is the admin account, so that can't be the problem.

It's formatted in FAT, as I still don't have Vista on either computer. Both my PCs are running XP SP3, one sees it fine, one doesn't. Hmm...I might just have to reinstall Windows.
 
If something has gotten messed up with regards to your USB controllers, you might want to remove them from device manager, reboot and let Windows reinstall them. That would be what I would try before reinstalling.

 
I already tried that (a few times actually), but thanks for trying to help. I guess I'll just be reinstalling tomorrow. My 2nd PC doesn't have a ton of software on it anyway, so it's not a huge hassle. Windows works in mysterious ways... ;)
 
I've had the same problem on my desktop. Just kept changing drive letters though like you're doing.
 
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