XP Doesn't See Flash Drive

[HoppaLong]

After purchasing a new flash drive I always check the factory partition setup with
an app like Acronis Disk Director. I keep a record of that info just in case the drive
has a problem.

I've got a 64GB stick that hasn't been used much. For no apparent reason, it just
seem to blowup! It's a Centon DataStick . I've owned several Centon sticks. Until
now, they were all trouble free.

I attempted to copy a 24GB package of files. The progress bar stopped before
completion and announced the drive was full. It was empty when the copying
started. The Properties Sheet for the drive showed 39GB of something. There
were no visible folders or files.

I ran an app called "USB Disk Storage Format Tool." The repair function showed
a problem with all clusters. As it checked each cluster it displayed "Bad links in
lost chain at cluster (number) corrected." When this process completed I rebooted
and tried again. All those cluster "corrections" didn't work. Before I junked this
flash drive I decided to wipe the partition and start fresh. FAT32 with 64KB clusters.
Just like the factory setup.

With XP Pro it appears as fully installed in Device Manager and the "Safely Remove
Hardware" box. For some reason it is no longer visible in Explorer or My Computer.
I booted into 98SE and a couple of Linux distros. No problem. The drive is visible
and working in all systems except XP Pro.

If this flash drive was physically damaged, it would not work in other systems. How
do I get XP Pro to recognize this drive?

[blackwingcat]

Try to delete 2 registry entry keys  its USB memory (in Disk class and USBStorage class ).

HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\*\{xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxxx}.

(You should change access permission on registry editior.)

 

After purchasing a new flash drive I always check the factory partition setup with
an app like Acronis Disk Director. I keep a record of that info just in case the drive
has a problem.

I've got a 64GB stick that hasn't been used much. For no apparent reason, it just
seem to blowup! It's a Centon DataStick . I've owned several Centon sticks. Until
now, they were all trouble free.

I attempted to copy a 24GB package of files. The progress bar stopped before
completion and announced the drive was full. It was empty when the copying
started. The Properties Sheet for the drive showed 39GB of something. There
were no visible folders or files.

I ran an app called "USB Disk Storage Format Tool." The repair function showed
a problem with all clusters. As it checked each cluster it displayed "Bad links in
lost chain at cluster (number) corrected." When this process completed I rebooted
and tried again. All those cluster "corrections" didn't work. Before I junked this
flash drive I decided to wipe the partition and start fresh. FAT32 with 64KB clusters.
Just like the factory setup.

With XP Pro it appears as fully installed in Device Manager and the "Safely Remove
Hardware" box. For some reason it is no longer visible in Explorer or My Computer.
I booted into 98SE and a couple of Linux distros. No problem. The drive is visible
and working in all systems except XP Pro.

If this flash drive was physically damaged, it would not work in other systems. How
do I get XP Pro to recognize this drive?

[jaclaz]

See also:

http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/175073-system-has-heart-attack-with-usb-stick/

 

Cleaning the whole USB database might be a good idea.

 

jaclaz

[HoppaLong]

You're correct, jaclaz.

I've posted about other problems with XP and a 64GB stick. Maybe I've just had bad luck,
but XP has never worked smoothly with flash drives. You would think that very old systems
like 98SE would go crazy. After all, Microsoft never thought to provide native support for
hardware that didn't exist way back then. Generic USB drivers and 98SE seem to love
each other! I managed to save all the data on a flash drive that had been crushed by a car.
The only system that recognized this crushed stick was 98SE.

jaclaz, I made a copy of that Registry cleaning procedure. If followed with care, it should
corrrect most problems with XP and USB devices. It would be nice if there were a reliable
app that searched the Registry and found these items screwing up USB devices. I've got
NirSoft's USBDeview, but I haven't tried it yet. I guess now is a good time.

[dencorso]

It would be nice if there were a reliable app that searched the Registry and found these items screwing up USB devices.

 

Well, there actually is something of the kind... it's called scrubber.exe... you can get it from MS, it's KB277222.

It'll remove all unconnected drives' entries from the registry, be they USB, SCSI, SATA or Firewire.

[jaclaz]

Well, there actually is something of the kind... it's called scrubber.exe... you can get it from MS, it's KB277222.

It'll remove all unconnected drives' entries from the registry, be they USB, SCSI, SATA or Firewire.

 

Which seemingly  is very loosely "something of the kind", it looks like it scrubs not the "same" things.

 

jaclaz

[HoppaLong]

OMG!!

I forgot to try the quickest and least destructive fix when you're having trouble with any
device in Windows. Dump the gizmo from Device Manager, reboot, and hopefully Windows
will reinstall the hardware properly. That's what I did with my 64GB Centon stick. It worked!

Acronis Disk Director displayed this stick as just another drive before I was forced to wipe
the partition and reformat. Disk Director is now failing detection. I think I know why. XP
creates hidden "System Volume Information" folders on all drives. There are blogs telling
you how to keep this junk off USB sticks, but Disk Director might need this info to detect the
flash drive. Windows own disk management tool does load this stick, but it lacks many of
the features provided by Acronis.

The Portable Freeware site recommends an app called "Rufus." I'm going to try it.

http://www.portablefreeware.com/all.php
http://rufus.akeo.ie/

[jaclaz]

There are blogs telling you how to keep this junk off USB sticks ...

Sure , and there are also blogs that tell you how to make bulletproof coffee:

https://www.bulletproofexec.com/bulletproof-coffee-recipe/

but this does not really mean that you have to believe what is written in them, nor actually prepare it (let alone actually drink that stuff).

jaclaz