USB Devices not showing up...  

Hi people, new to the forum.

I've had a problem for sometime now, for about a month whenever I plug in a USB device (such as an external hard drive) it says that the device is now ready to use, but it simply won't show up on my computer.

I've tried a few other USB devices since I noticed this problem, and it does the same thing. They simply won't show up.

I've never had this problem before, I'm guessing it's perhaps because I had to reintsall power dvd 11 as it was bugging out on me, and it suddenly came up with an install shield error detector (I've read that powerdvd11 can be very buggy, so I've since purchased CorrelWinDVD11 to play my blu-rays). Or it could be because my dvd and bd rom suddenly went missing, so I followed some instructions on google on how to delete some paths, restart the computer, and sure enough, they showed up again.

I really don't know what's causing this, and if there's anything I can do to solve it.

I also must note that with my old usb devices, they still show up fine, but anything new, such as an external usb hard drive or a new memory stick, or anything new usb related, won't show up.

This is obviously becoming very annoying as I'm planning on buying a new camcorder in the future to do some editing, but these usb devices, even with a mouse, just won't show up and my computer doesn't detect it!

Is this a common problem, and if so, how can I fix it? (By the way, I tried renaming the paths in the driver device manager, but it comes up with an error message and does nothing).

I hope I don't have to reinstall windows 7 again, as I could lose everything (which is the reason I got the extra 600TB USB external hub).

Plus, it's a custom built PC, which an old friend who no longer lives locally anymore, fixed it up for me and did the partitions, installed the software for the graphics card and everything (I know nothing about these kinds of things).

Thanks in advance-

BOC.

Check it if it is showing in the Disk Management Window. Maybe a flash memory does not contain a letter. Like E or F for example at My Computer and required to identify a letter for it..

I tried to give it a letter, it shows up, but does nothing, it's practically useless.

This is the error message it comes up with:

Thanks for that!

I've bookmarked the page, I'll try it tomorrow as it's very late and I have to be up early for work tomorrow. Just hope that it works as it looks like it might take awhile.

One question though- is this a common issue with windows 7 64 bit on a desktop? I've always had a laptop before and never had this problem.

I really, REALLY miss having good 'ol XP. Those system restore points were pretty handy weren't they?

Regards-

BOC.

Thanks.

I tried the other devices in my 32 bit laptop, I just plug and play, and they seem fine.

Regards-

BOC.

Hi there.

I DID try the microsoft fix it program, but it was unable to solve the problem. I've attached a picture to show the error message.

As I have alot of work to do right now, I'll have to try Britton30's solution (which I'm grateful for him/her posting, and I'll try it when I have spare time as I'm taking a breaker from my web designer) and will try it when I'm free. As SOON as I've tried it, I'll let you know if it's worked or not. Fingers crossed, it will.