External USB drives using letter E: not showing in "My Computer"

Layback Bear · 23 Feb 2014

If I may.
This may help others help you.
With everything plugged in do this tutorial by Golden.

Disk Management - Post a Screen Capture Image

jumanji · 23 Feb 2014

Oh me! I thought you had a desktop PC. You may give your laptop manufacturer and model Number and also as Layback suggested the Disk Management screenshot.

Referring to the old (year 2010 thread) in SevenForums, we have a more recent Dec 2013 thread here Why must I assign a drive letter every time I use my external HDD? where diskpart automount enable cleared the problem for the op. You have already tried it .

But where is that thread involving Intel Matrix Storage Manager you referred?

Worst comes worst, you may be required to do a repair install for your laptop but I shall leave the whole problem for other experienced experts to tackle.( Half-knowledge - mine- is dangerous.:))

Toucan · 23 Feb 2014

The machine is a Dell XPS 14Z. I'll see about a screen capture image of the screen management page...

Toucan · 23 Feb 2014

Here's the captured image. Note that this particular memory stick I had plugged in was a FAT system while the computer itself is NTFS. Both types of drives or memory sticks work (or don't work) the same way in this E: drive problem.

Layback Bear · 24 Feb 2014

Toucans My System Specs. Is this correct.

Computer type PC/Desktop
OS Winbdows 7 Home Premium 64 bit

Toucan · 24 Feb 2014

The operating system is correct.

It is a Dell laptop - XPS 14Z

Slartybart · 24 Feb 2014

Try this: add a new environemt variable to your user profile
Variable name: devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices
Variable value: 1

Then go to Device Manager and select show hidden devices on the view menu

Expand the USB category and provide a screenshot

The Drive Tools for Windows should have taken care of any ghosts, but I'd like to verify what's there.

Toucan · 24 Feb 2014

First I want to thank you all for your efforts to help me out.

I am sorry, but how do I add the new variable to my user profile? I'll take care of your request as soon as I can.

Slartybart · 24 Feb 2014

Right click on Computer

Select Properties
Click on Advanced system settings in the left pane
Click on the Environment Variables button in the bottom right area of the System Properties window
Click on the New... button under your user variables (not System variables)
Enter the following in the text boxes

Variable name: devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices
Variable value: 1

Click OK out of all System Properties windows

When you select View - > Show Hidden Devices in Device Manager there will be entries that are grayed out.

These are devices that are longer present. They could be a device that just isn't connected or they could be devices that have not been completely removed by an uninstall.

This is what I'd like to see - what if any devices are ghost devices for the USB category.

Bill
.

ComputerGeek · 25 Feb 2014

@Toucan

1) Check for network mapped drives (they can cause drive letter conflicts as well)
> Open an command prompt window , type net use and see what's listed.
> You can delete all network mapped drives opening an admin command prompt window and typing

Code:

net use * /delete

2) Unplug your USB Mass Storage (UMS) devices again - like flash, USB disks and CD/DVD again. Run the DriveCleanup tool again. Now download DriveLetterView. Is E: still assigned?