USB's Drive Not assigned

[goodwins]

Hi I am running Windows 7 32 bit Professional. When I plug a USB in the message that the device has installed appears. When I go to Printers and Devices the USB appears. When I go to Device Manager the Device appears as a uninstalled device and in Disk Management it has not been assigned a drive letter. Any thoughts?

 

[Britton30]

Assuming the USB you refer to is a flash drive, have you formatted it? In Disk Management Right click it and choose Assign drive leter, any one will do.

 

[goodwins]

Hi Britton 30, Yes the USB is formatted. It works on XP machines fine and also one of my Win 7 machines but not the others. I have 30 machines in one lab and the ones that fail give me the following message when I try to assign a Drive. "The operation failed because the disk management tool is not up to date. REfresh the view, Close the disk management or restart the PC" After attempting all these things I still get the same message. Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Britton30]

Very odd. Maybe some file corruption, try running http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1538-sfc-scannow-command-system-file-checker.html#post14392. Then, or, try a manual Windows update after doing this: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/91738-windows-update-reset.html#post790804, using Option Two.

 

[goodwins]

Silly me... I just did a driver scan for the unrecognised device in Device Manager and it found a generic volume for the drive and thus assigned a drive letter. However I can not have my users do these steps everytime they plug a USB into the machine. Can the generic driver be placed in a location that all users have access to and would be found automatically on connection of a USB.

By the way the scan file produced no integrity violations!

 

[Britton30]

I'm not fluent in networks, but I think it could be placed on one of the PCs and deployed to the rest?
But Windows should install a generic driver on its own. Have you tried different USB drives? Maybe you have a wonky (tech term ) one.

 

[goodwins]

Pluged USB 1 in Appears in Device Manager as unknown device
Update Driver - it installs the generic volume
Still appears in Device Manager as an unknown device (although it can now be accessed)
Update Driver Again - it installs the WPD File System Volume Driver
Now appears as a recognised Driver in Device Manager

Plugged in USB 2 - Had to perform same steps
Plugged in USB 3 - Same scenario - 3 out of 3 not working dont think it is therefore a USB error but rather a setup or system error.

All installs of Drivers were from scans of the c: so surelly a scan for these drivers should perform automatically when a usb is plugged in? Confused !

 

[Britton30]

Me too buddy, I'll ask for some one more knowledgable for help. Check back regularly, it may not be right away.

 

[pooch]

You could try this fix; http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/165554-usb-driver-general-fix-problems.html?filter[2]=Hardware%20and%20Drivers

 

[goodwins]

Hi Pooch thank you for your suggestion. I followed as outlined in your post deleting all unknown devices and the cache file. Plugged in a known working USB and recreated the infcache file - USB Worked like a charm. Connected a different USB but same thing happens... appears in Device Manager as unknown device and requires the driver to be updated.

 

[pooch]

Connected a different USB but same thing happens... appears in Device Manager as unknown device and requires the driver to be updated.

Ok this should be good as the driver has been deleted for this drive did you try updating the driver?
Another option may be to visit the manufacturers websites and see if you can download windows 7 drivers

 

[goodwins]

When I update the driver it works fine... however I can not have my users do this for every USB that is plugged in. I have the latest updates from the manufacturer.

"All installs of Drivers were from scans of the c: so surelly a scan for these drivers should perform automatically when a usb is plugged in?"

 

[pooch]

Sorry for the delay, I have been trying to find answers to your problem. I am working on the message you received "The operation failed because the disk management tool is not up to date. Refresh the view, Close the disk management or restart the PC" Unfortunately I have found no definitive answers.

Firstly I think you should run http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/433-disk-check.html from step 4 go to step 8 then check the drive to see if it is now recognised

If the above does not work A more drastic answer is to delete and format the drive You will have to make a copy of all data on the drive as all data on the drive will be erased
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/52129-disk-clean-clean-all-diskpart-command.html

I would try these methods with just one of the affected USB drives to find out if it is going to help or not.

 

[goodwins]

Hi Pooch,
The above suggestions didnt work. I have taken snap shots of device manager and disk management so that you can see what is happening (first time I have tried this so if you didnt get them please let me know!)
I have inculded the difference between the working USB .. after a driver install.. and the not working usb.

I still think it comes down to something to do with it not searching for the driver on connection. As when I do a update driver and search c: manually it loads fine. Is there some setting that may prevent a user from scanning automatically to find these drivers. Why should they have to do it manually.?

I thank you for your on going support with this. I am determined to find the solution!

 

[pooch]

The problem seems to be that windows either does not load a driver or tries to load the wrong driver, In the research I have done Microsoft seems to lay the blame rightly or wrongly on the drive manufacturers and suggests that the drivers for the devices should come from them. We both know that the drivers are included in Windows but the problem is how to make Windows load the right driver for the right device. Up until now the tutorial I posted has had a fairly high success rate in solving this problem but I am unsure what to do with the unsolved cases.
At the moment the only help I can give is the tutorial, that should, by the way be carried out on each affected PC ( I forgot to mention this before) and from my own experience I suggest one device per USB port as only one driver will be installed for each port avoiding Windows trying to load the wrong driver. Or even buying all devices from the same manufacturer.
I am at a loss as to what else we can try but I will continue looking for an answer and will let you know if and when I find one.
One last thing, do you use a USB hub? if yes is it powered? I cant verify this but I have read about similar problems where USB hubs that do not have a power supply are being used.

 

[pooch]

I have just found this, It may possibly help you;


Click on C:\ and create a folder called USB drivers

Go to C:\WINDOWS and copy the contents of the folder called inf

Paste the contents into the folder you just made

Then when you get an unrecognised USB device in Device Manager point it to the folder that you have made on C: and see if it gets remembered this way