Windows 7: Media card readers

Once again Windows 7 has raised my stress levels beyond imagaantation. Three hours into this problem now, and all I hit is brick walls.

I am DESPERATELY trying re retreive some photos off my camera's SD card. The card is perfect.

I have
- an internal card reader on my Dell 9200
- an internal card reader in my Dell monitor
- a Lexar USB2.0 external card reader

There is no way on earth they are all defectiive.

I have multiple SD cards - There is no way on earth they are all defective.

My computer shows my a whack of Removable drive. Nothing works.

To compound everthing, as if its not frustrating enough, I have no way to tell which drive is for what.

The external drive reports the device is Ready for Use

When I randomely select some of the drives I get the progress bar going on the Computer windows. It goes right across, and then does nothing.

When I randomly select other drive, it asks for the media, but ask as if its not there.

I cannot seem to be able to remove all the portable/removable drives from device manager, I had hoped to be able to do this so that Windwos 7 could redetect them... but alas I cannot.

In Device Manager even I go thru each tab, I get some cluse as to what some of the drives are for. I tried to rename the drives accordingly, but Win 7 will not let me.

I am all out of ideas.

Total Windows frusrtration, yet again.

This won't fix the problem of figuring which drive letter belongs to what but this might help.
Do you have the cable to connect your camera to the PC?
If so insert the sd card into the camera and then connect the camera to the pc. If the autoplay doesn't open, then browse with windows explorer and you should get an icon image of a camera or a new drive letter. Then there should be a folder of DCIM which should contain your photos ... hope this helps

mediaman09,
I had a similar problem with a all-in-one card reader fan controller unit I installed. I un-installed Windows 7 multiple times and after hours on the phone with Microsoft we determined I had a bad usb device. Sure enough after un-plugging the usb plug off the mobo header life was good again and all my drives responded properly but plugging that usb back in and I would get the same green bar as in your snip. I would unplug all unnecessary drives and usb devices and see how the system responds with just the Lexar external reader plugged in. If better and all cards read then go about plugging a device back into the mobo till the problem occurs and that's your bad device.

Ignnoring external USB for the moment (ie when nothing connected), my issue is that I cannot get the INTERNAL card reader to work.

I can see all the drives in Windowa explorer, Device Manager and Manage Computer. But all that happens when it tries to read any memory card, is the green bar.

Same with my system and the green bar begins then slows and seems to never complete what would normally happen in a blink. I believe you have a usb device that has gone bad. This very fan controller unit functioned perfect in it's original case and worked well in the new build with the first mobo but with the new mobo it failed, but I couldn't believe it was bad hence the calls to Windows 7 and re-installs. It was never Windows 7 but a usb connection in my case. Frustrating but if you take the time to remove items one at a time and test or remove all non essentials and reconnect one at a time you'll find the culprit.

I unplugged all the USB devices. Even the keyboard and the mouse! There is nothing more to remove.

I even updated firmware for teh reader

Under windows 7, I

- cannot get the internal card reader to work (only get the never ending green bar in explorer)
- same with external usb reader on my monitor
- same with external udb card reader

All chips and external readers work fine on all my XP computers and other monitors

Windows 7 sticks it to me once again.

I would not be surprised at all if the fix is something as outrageous as a new fan contoroller, power supply, motherboard, 25 reinstalls of Windows 7, or whatever. Clearly I am not going to go that route. I think Microsoft might want to consder hiring some 14 years olds next, as thr twelve year olds aren't cutting it.

Thanks for the post. yes, I can get the photos that way, but my camera has other battery draining issues using the cable (!!!) ... so I'm am trying to get the Windows 7 computer to read the card directly.

mediaman,
The usb devices I'm referring to are on the mobo headers ! I would trace the wires from the internal card reader to the mobo and unplug then try the external lexar and report back.

Way too much troubleshoot effort here to read a media card.

I think the issue is newer media vs older hardware.

The main media card I have is a 16GB SDHC card. I suspect its as simple as some readers have issues with the capacity

After rebooting with a fimrware upgrade, the internal reader now recognizes the SDHC card... but the external readers (Dell 2407monitor, and Lexar USB 2.0) do not, and I suspect never will.

Yes these high capacity cards are tough with older readers. I always plug them into my external lexar pro reader but it cost me 80.00 so it's not your garden variety card reader !