External Hard Disk Installation Issues

[kaushikparsha]

I am having problems installing and subsequently using external hard disk drive on my laptop.

Since a couple of months, I have noticed that whenever I try to plug in a USB external Hard Disk, Vista is unable to install the driver, am I am unable to use it.

I used to think that the issue was the lack Vista compatibilty but when this happened with a new USB hard disk i purchased a couple of days ago, I was pretty sure the problem was something in the computer, especially since the same USB hard disk ran seamlessly on another laptop with Vista.

The message I get everytime I plug in the usb cable is that windows cannot find the appropriate driver to install the USB mass storage device.

If i try to manually locate a location for the driver and point it to the system32 directory, It comes back saying that EVEN THOUGH THE DRIVER WAS FOUND, THERE WAS A PROBLEM INSTALLING IT AS THE FILE SPECIFIED WAS NOT FOUND.

After reading a couple of furums, I tried deleting the infcache.1 file after editing the security settings and running explorer as an administrator, but the file is just refusing to get deleted...Just cant figure out why?

Another problem I have been facing since about the same time is the non-functioning of AUTO-PLAY. It just doesnt start in response to any device... CD/DVD/PEN DRIVE/EXT USB HARD DISK.

I tried basic as well as adventurous solutions like toggling with the registry, but it hasnt seemed to work.

I really am no expert, but I am beginning to think that the two problems might be related....

This has begun to irritate me a lil....hope there is a solution to it.

[ajua]

did you used that same hard drive before? if not and the drive is new or untested before in your laptop maybe it can't draw enough power to run properly. i have run into this kind of issue before.

if you have used that drive before maybe vista messed up with drivers. try using Nirsoft USBDeview (nirsoft.com) and uninstall any usb device that you have connected and try again.