Strange USB Drive Showing in Device Manager

Boozad · 26 Apr 2014

Here you go CG, I did look into this briefly before but didn't find anything. I've got to admit my quick search was half hearted at best.

An interesting subject turned up on here last night though, while doing a bit of investigative work in this thread it turned out the user has the same Windows Portable Devices showing up when not even connected that I have. I had put this down to AI Suite III, but that user doesn't have an ASUS motherboard so I doubt that's the cause of his problem.
That's made me wonder if it actually something to do with Windows and how it's handling USB connected devices.

Strange USB Drive Showing in Device Manager-capture.jpg

An interesting alternative view:

Strange USB Drive Showing in Device Manager-capture-2.jpg

ComputerGeek · 26 Apr 2014

Do you have a Card Reader? As seems to me, that's what it is.

Create a System Restore point, download the driver HERE. Right cick and select "Run as Admin" to install

Boozad · 26 Apr 2014

No, no card reader. I believe this is all relating to one of my front USB3.0 ports (or both) running from the midboard header. I'm tempted to set a Restore Point and uninstall my eXtensible Host Controller, reboot and reinstall the drivers.

ComputerGeek · 26 Apr 2014

Well, then it is strange. As the Hardware ID of USB Mass Storage (USB MS)device:
> Indicates the hardware vendor for the USB MS is Genesys
> It's a real / physical device (from all indications i see)
> The Hardware Id is among those listed in the Installation Setup File which indicates the UB SM driver from Genesys supports it.

You may want to create a restore point and try.

Boozad · 26 Apr 2014

I just uninstalled my eXtensible Host Controller, rebooted and reinstalled. Guess what? The drive was reinstalled during the process.

Now that drive is assigned the path L: which is also the path assigned to flash drives when inserted in the front USB3.0 ports. I hear what you're saying regarding the driver above but I don't have any Genesys hardware in my system at all. The drive that is showing up isn't physically attached to my system, that's what's really confusing me.

Boozad · 26 Apr 2014

This confuses the issue even more, I inserted my Kingston data Traveller into the front USB3.0 port and this popped up

Strange USB Drive Showing in Device Manager-capture-3.jpg

However, Device Manager shows both the Data Traveller and the strange drive as still there. The Data Traveller has been assigned the L: path again when inserted.

ComputerGeek · 26 Apr 2014

OH.

I just noticed your thread started in 2013! That answered one of my questions: Is this a recent problem?!

If you like, and at your leisure, I wouldn't mind exploring your issues further. My curiosity is definitely piqued!

One thing i've noticed, drivers for Windows Portable devices (WPD) install different then other drivers. But still some things to try / look at for both your USB and WPD puzzles

By default, Device Manager only displays connected devices. And i think each flash drive should also appear with a corresponding Portable device. Do you see one portable device per flash? To confirm if a Portable device is associated with a flash drive (and which one)

Watch Portable Devices while you "Safely Remove" a flash drive. DevMgr will refresh. Does a portable device disappear? If yes, it's associated with the flash you just removed
Does ??? Disk appear as a Safely Remove option? Anything change under Portable devices when you do?
Unplug all the flash drives and run the 32- or 64-bit version of USBTreeView as appropriate for your OS. Give me a snapshot of the left pane. Click File->Save Report and upload to next post

Phone Man · 27 Apr 2014

Someone posted this utility the other day and it shows everything about your USB system. Maybe it will let you get a fix on your problem. Just unpack and run the exe.

USB Device Tree Viewer

There are right click options on the ports,hub and controller that may let you clear it up.

Jim

ComputerGeek beat me to it while I was getting the information. First time I have used it so still checking it out.

ComputerGeek · 27 Apr 2014

Hey Phone man

Ahhh... Great minds think alike. (Guess I'm the early bird - with the worm

)

/* EDIT */
btw... Boozad, you have two very cute kids (on your Desktop Wallpaper). Are they your daughters?

Boozad · 27 Apr 2014

I'll give this a go later lads, just running around doing stuff that needs doing at the moment. I can tell you that the strange drive doesn't show up in Safely Remove Hardware though. I'll take some screenshots later with flash drives plugged in and what not. I can record my desktop activity so I'll give that a go and see how big the file is, it may be easier to understand what's going on. It may take me a few hours to upload it though.

ComputerGeek said:

btw... Boozad, you have two very cute kids (on your Desktop Wallpaper). Are they your daughters?

Thanks mate, yeah they're my daughters. That photo's a couple of years old now but it's still one of my favourites.