Harddisk appears as local disk

stoleaway,

Ok, 20 updates were offered, all installed without incident (none were hidden). That's great, yes do check one more time in the morning. If WU doesn't offer more, then you're ok. Don't think that there might be more based on my 146 comment - WU will tell you if there are any updates as long as you ask using the Control Panel WU applet.

Clarification on WU / hiding updates. It's important to understand that hiding WU updates is only a temporary measure and doing it might actually cause other updates to fail. You normally never leave WU offers hidden, you always restore them and force an update if one isn't launched when you restore hidden updates.

If you had to hide any WU update, it's time to go back in and restore the hidden updates to active WU processing. In Control Panel WU, click "Restore Hidden updates" on the left of the dialog window, then select all of the hidden updates and click restore. Restoring updates should launch "Check for updates" - if not, click "Check for updates".

When you're done - there should be no hidden updates and nothing offered by WU to download/install.

Ya know what? This would be a great time to create Win7 SP1 media (USB) so you never have to go through this pain if you need to reinstall or repair for some reason.

   Note

Download the latest official Windows 7 with SP1 ISO file here: Dell Community, Win7 ISO, then
use the Windows 7 USB-DVD Download Tool to create bootable Win7 install media

You are only creating the Win7 SP1 installation media - you don't have to install anything
(You already have the USB-DVD tool from when you created the non SP1 media)

Download the SP1 ISO for your Windows version and machine architecture (x86 or x64) and use the tool to put it on a USB or DVD - that's all.
Your specs say: Windows 7 Home Premium x64

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Alright, back to the ext HD. Please post a Disk Management screenshot. And check the Device Manager for the card reader - it might be in the IDE section. This is more to follow up on the card reader, if it's not there I don't want to chase it at this point.

Here's what I'd like you to try re: the ext Drive
Remove the drive letter when you're in Disk Management. If disk management is hampered by the drive, don't worry about that - exit disk management.

Eject, safely remove, and physically disconnect the drive.

Follow the General Fix for USB Driver Problems tutorial. There are some references in the comment section that help if you run into issues following the instructions. Particularly INFCACHE.1

• search might not find it - make sure you have "Include system directories" set in your search options or just navigate to the directory cited.
• delete might not allow you to delete it. Pooch skipped a step when (s)he described changing the security. You also need to give full access permissions to Administrators. Or you can follow a comment ot the take ownership tut (note the warnings in the tutorial about taking ownership).
• there is an interesting comment on a known MS bug - post #5 in the tut.
  The direct MS reference is Binary files in some USB drivers are not updated after you install Windows 7 SP1
  - download and install the version specific to your machine from the resolution section.

SYMPTOMS
After you install Windows 7 Service Pack 1 (SP1) or Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 (SP1), binary files in some USB drivers are not updated. For example, the Usbport.sys, Usbehci.sys, and Winusb.sys binary files are not updated.

There is also a reference to similar issues on MyDigitalLife, but other than some executable I don't know about (I'm always wary of .exe files when a bunch of instructions work), the information seems to be duplicated there (or here).

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We're expecting a very big storm here on the east coast, so if we lose power I will be offline. The hype is to prepare for one or two days without power - we'll see how bad it is. I just wanted to let you know that I didn't abandon anyone =:>

Bill
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Slartybart said:

John,

I was just about to crash. I'm not sure the device is responsive enough to run chkdsk - that might take weeks =:>

We'll see if disk management, diskpart, or managing USB drivers does the trick.

It wouldn't be a bad idea to run chkdsk, just not yet. Keep me honest and remind me - ok?

No need to keep you honest Bill I was just wondering too did we mention (not wanting to wade back) that readiness tool as worth a try?

Oh yeah I saw the storm (perfect?) on our news be careful!

SURT couldn't repair the missing / corrupt .NET v2.0 files on the system or in the store, so there were two options left - the Repair install and SURT using the cab files. I'm just glad stoleaway is persitent and willing to put up with Windows when it doesn't co-operate.

Yeah, the storm is going to be interesting - epic! We're prepared - a few days without power, maybe. I like PB&J...

Thanks for the good tidings.

Bill
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This might be a stupid question but is the card reader plugged in?

That's good that the card reader isn't listed. Could you post a Device Manager screenshot of your IDE/ATA section?

stoleaway said:

all updates done, card reader still not there though. did the general fix for USB drivers and here is the screenshot of disk mgmt (can't do anything w my ext hdd plugged in, so this is w/o it plugged in)

Here's how my system defines it:

Steve,

stoleaway has two ext drives. The WD works ok, a Seagate (full reference posted in the thread) is the problem device. I was confused before too - stoleaway straightened it out.

F5ing said:

Were you ever able to get into the BIOS?

Can you double check the model number for that WD external drive? I searched WD's site and found no reference to 10EAVS.

In the meantime, let's hope all stays well with Slarty and everyone else within the affected (or soon to be affected) areas.

Keep in mind that stoleaway is in a different part of the world - I had to look at HP Asia to find the HP model. but... I couldn't find the ext 10EAVS either. I'll focus on the Seagate since that's the one that's confused or confusing Windows. In the end - it might be a bad drive, but I'll do what I can to verify that.

Thanks - we're safe. Rain is starting to get heavy 07:43 monday. We might be spared the blunt, but folks to the west of me (Anak) are in for some rough weather.

Bill
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Ummmm, just took a closer look at your Disk Manager screenshot. What might disc 2 be - removable - no media (no drive letter)

I think a Device Manager screenshot would help - are there any ghost devices - inside DevMgr, click the View menu, show hidden devices. If you still have the environment set from the Generic USB tutorial, you'll also see decives that are not present (ghosts and not present are greyed in the list).

I'm not sure this is an issue, but I saw it and I'm asking about it.

Ok, back to the Seagate issue:
Plug in the Seagate and right click the drive in Device Mgr - select properites, then click the policies tab and post a screenshot.

Post the screenshot 1st, then click the radio button "Optimize for performance". If it's already set that way, toggle it to "optimize for quick removal" and exit DevMgr. eject ext HD, safely remove ext HD, physically disconnect ext HD, reboot, then connect the Seagate.

If the thing works better great, but large capacity USB drives aren't really geared for quick removal. Try setting the removal policy to "Optimize for performance", then..... well you know the drill by now.

but just in case you've forgotten =:>
exit DevMgr. eject ext HD, safely remove ext HD, physically disconnect ext HD, reboot, then connect the Seagate

These are the easy attempts - we'll get into more "difficult" steps in a bit. The good news? I will at some point suggest a utility - it requires .NET v2 - I'm glad we previously fixed that. The utility might not be used if one of the easy steps solved the dilemma.

Bill
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