Win 7 not recognizing USB data cards

Win 7 Ultimate SP1 - All updates current to this date.
Asus P8Z68 Deluxe Gen3 Motherboard
16GB ram

Something has recently happened where I am unable to reliably view card contents. I noticed this when I tried to read the MicroSD card in my Samsung Cell phone. The card shows up as "removable disk" but when I click on it in I get a window saying "Please insert a disk into removable disk (F:)."

I do everything correctly with the phone including setting to debugging mode and turning on the USB storage. If I do exactly the same with my backup computer, all works as expected and I see the contents of the card in the phone. It's isolated to this computer.

I have a Rosewill USB 3.0 card reader for various card sizes and I discovered it no longer works as it used to in this computer but it works fine in the other computer. The only way I can get a card to be read with it in this machine is to insert the disk into the reader and then plug the reader into the computer. when I do this I see the used/free amount on the card and all looks fine. If I withdraw the card and re-insert it I get the error message above saying to insert a disk into it.

When I put a card in I see the icon for the data blacken at the end. If I remove the card or turn off mass storage on the phone the end becomes gray like the rest of the icon.

The phone is new and my inability to access the data on the microSD was I thought, related to the phone not being compatible with the OS but when I tried the Rosewell Card reader which used to work beautifully and now find it not functioning as expected, again I have to look to the OS.

Any idea what I can do to get the card reader functionality back? Although I can use the other computer, it's the files on this computer I need to get access to & transfer.

Thanks!

sreedhav said:

Dear Megalomando,
Is it only the USB Datacard not readable or is it happening to other USB devices,like your external HDD,etc!

I am taking copyright from another post here! Go to Device Manager. 2) Click on View. 3) In the drop down menu select Show Hidden Devices. Now check there.

If your device is not listed, you will have to follow the tutorial below:
USB Driver - General Fix for Problems

Regards,
sreedhav:)

Thanks for the reply. It only seems to be with data cards that this happens. The device holding them is identified and it shows up in the device manager (which says everything is working properly). My USB hard drive works fine as does the USB wireless adapter. It's just the cards that won't show in whatever adapter I have used (& they all used to be fine in this computer and all the cards show properly on the XP computer)

I just reloaded the Samsung drivers and when I told the phone to switch to mass storage, it showed the card as it should with volume available & used, just as it does on the XP computer. I switched off the mass storage and the volume info disappeared as I expected & when I switched the phone back to mass storage the data did not return; worked once and then back to not working again.

Meg

No, there are 12 external USB ports on the motherboard including two on the front. four of them are USB 3.0. It's a really nice board & everything else related to USB works great; I'm using a wireless USB dongle, USB 1.5TB USB Goflex drive & more so the USB ports are working, they just don't display or write to any SD cards unless the adapter is inserted with the card already in it.

If I insert the USB adapter with the card in it, it will display the card contents but if I insert the SD card after the adapter plugged in it will not. With the cell phone I have to wait till it is connected to the computer via USB cable and only then can I switch it to storage mode and that is to allow communication with the computer. Simply plugging the phone is as if to charge shows up as a removable disk. Switching to mass storage in the phone changes the removable disk icon so it shows a black end on the "removable disk". It does not show the bar with how many gigs are free & total GB on the card.

On the XP computer it immediately shows the cards & its contents as if it were an active drive.

Frustrating...

sreedhav said:

Dear Megalomando,
The problem is with the Rosewill Card Reader. This happens,for reasons not fully explainable with 3rd party card readers.

Regards,
sreedhav

Hi, the problem was first noticed when win 7 would not allow me to read the SD card in my Samsung Admire Smart phone. It was then I discovered the card reader has the same problem. This win 7 does not allow me to do what I can with that XP machine.

I can remove the SD card and then use the card as I mentioned, if I put the card in the reader and then plug the reader to the USB port. I didn't have to do that before. I just bought the cell phone a week ago and discovered this problem. In fact, I can read the card properly on my girlfriend's XP computer too. I just had to download the Samgsung drivers and it worked properly there as well.

I'm not at a computer right now so I can not post a link.....but I had this issue before....Look up "Computer will not read mass storage devices" its a thread I started, you might be able to fix the same way. Good Luck!