Usb drives are not shown in "My Computer"

[Designation7]

Just as it sounds, my computer recognizes that I plug in a usb drive, but it is not shown in "My Computer."
I can still access the drive if I navigate to it through the address bar, and at the moment I just have a shortcut directly to the drive letter.
I've tried reinstalling the device and assigning drive letters but it hasn't worked. I've tried plugging in my external HDD, my flash drive, and my phone but none of them show up in "My Computer."

This isn't crippling to my computer but it is very inconvenient.
Any help would be great.

-Thanks
-7

 

[kucing13]

try this one

Right click on My Computer
Go to Manage > Disk Management
- is the drive recognized? If so ,right click on the drive > Change drive letter or paths and choose an unused drive letter > OK

feel free to ask

 

[Designation7]

Thats the thing, I've already done that.
It still doesn't show up in My Computer, the only drive letters I have used are C: and D:, and I assigned P: to my phone.

 

[kucing13]

do you have restore point before this problems starts?if you do you could try system restore.

and try changing drive letter to E

EDIT: I forgot to mention about the drivers.check that one too. you can go to Device Manager to see if there are any problems there. To do this, go to Start and type in "devmgmt.msc" (without the quotes) and press Enter. Look for anything with a red X or a yellow ! and try to reinstall the drivers


feel free to ask

 

[Designation7]

I thought I did but apparently I don't, the only system restore I have is like 20 minutes ago...

Oh and I changed it to E:, no change...

 

[Bill2]

Since you can access the drive, backup the data on it. Then format the drive. If this is a thumb drive, you can use the HP tool to format.

 

[kucing13]

I have edit my last post.try checking the driver,if the problems persist,Bill suggestion might do the trick

 

[Designation7]

I already reinstalled the driver. There is one thing with an error (PCI FLASH memory)...which I was meaning to ask about...
Still nothing.

 

[kucing13]

Acer usually comes with driver cd .use that to reinstall the driver

another method is from here. Be sure to create restore point

 

[Designation7]

I was given this computer, never had the CD. I tried the program but I get this error:

I restarted the program, I restarted the computer, I ran as administrator...

 

[kucing13]

allright,here's the thing. can you go back to device manager where you found the yellow,red X thing,right click and uninstall it?

 

[Designation7]

I uninstalled it (PCI flash memory) and tried again, no change, program still doesn't work, usb drives still not working.
The PCI flash memory has always not worked on my computer, even when I had XP on my computer, I never figured out what it was...

I don't know what time it is where you are but I see the sun coming up here and I need some sleep, thanks for all your help, and if you have any other ideas feel free to tell me, I just won't reply for a while, I'll make sure to give you some rep.

Oh and happy 1,111th post

 

[kucing13]

my..that's hard since you didn't have the driver cd. you get the laptop with seven installed in it right.

 

[Designation7]

I'm awake, no I installed 7 myself.
I found a torrent for the recovery CD, I'll see if it works.

 

[kucing13]

try it first and thank for the rep mate

 

[zzz2496]

Try unchecking: Folder options -> View -> Hide empty drives in the Computer folder.

zzz2496

 

[electrotune1200]

Have you disabled any startup entries listed as "usbnotify" ?

 

[Designation7]

Tried zzz2496's idea but no luck.

That is a possibility electrotune...my friend was messing with the registry...

(By the way sorry I haven't replied in so long, I was on a kayaking trip.)

 

[electrotune1200]

Hello, How was the Kayaking trip?

Try typing msconfig into the search menu, and look for any startup entries listed as usbmonitor. If you see the entry listed, check the box, click apply, then ok, and then reboot.

If that fails to fix the problem, hopefully you have a Windows disc that you can run a repair install from. Since your friend was playing around with the registry, something of importance could have been disabled or deleted.

Keep us informed on your situation.

 

[Designation7]

Hey I got an idea, could someone send me a working .reg backup file of just the area of their registry that has the "usbnotify" key in it?