When I try to connect an external USB hard drive or a USB memory stick to my
laptop, Vista throws up a message saying: “Windows needs to install driver
software for your Unknown Device�. I let Vista search, but Vista cannot find
the required driver.

However, when I connect the same external USB hard drive or a USB memory
stick to my desktop PC, also running Vista Ultimate, Vista has no problems
recognizing the device and installing the required driver automatically and
without throwing up any messages.

I suspect that some Vista service(s) on my laptop might be disabled or not
functioning properly, but I cannot find out which one could be the cause.
Perhaps someone here could point me in the right direction.

All help would be much appreciated.

Try running System Information for Windows.

Download from he

'SIW | Download' (http://www.gtopala.com/siw-download.html)

This will quickly tell you a lot about your system.


--
frj111

Instead of letting Vista search, try pointing it to the \windows\inf folder.
If that works, post back for further info on a permanent fix.
--

"akita" wrote in message
...
When I try to connect an external USB hard drive or a USB memory stick to
my
laptop, Vista throws up a message saying: "Windows needs to install driver
software for your Unknown Device". I let Vista search, but Vista cannot
find
the required driver.

However, when I connect the same external USB hard drive or a USB memory
stick to my desktop PC, also running Vista Ultimate, Vista has no problems
recognizing the device and installing the required driver automatically
and
without throwing up any messages.

I suspect that some Vista service(s) on my laptop might be disabled or not
functioning properly, but I cannot find out which one could be the cause.
Perhaps someone here could point me in the right direction.

All help would be much appreciated.

"GTS" wrote:

Instead of letting Vista search, try pointing it to the \windows\inf folder.
If that works, post back for further info on a permanent fix.
--

Thanks for that. Tried it, but Vista still comes up with "Windows was unable
to install your Unknown Device"

I've come across this problem some where some time ago, and I'm pretty sure
the issue was to do with some system service that was disabled or not
properly configured.

Is there a way to reset - in one go - all system services to their default??

Thanks again for all help.

"frj111" wrote:


Try running System Information for Windows.

Download from he

'SIW | Download' (http://www.gtopala.com/siw-download.html)

This will quickly tell you a lot about your system.


Dead link for me using Vista's IE7 and UAC (Internet Explorer cannot display
the webpage).

BTW, why would I need this? Shouldn't Vista's inbuilt System Information
applet be sufficient?

Or does this program show me what services are required / disable /
malfunctioning?

Thanks for all help.

"frj111" wrote:


Try running System Information for Windows.

Download from he

'SIW | Download' (http://www.gtopala.com/siw-download.html)

This will quickly tell you a lot about your system.


--
frj111


Correction: I'm downloading SIW now from Softpedia's link and will report
back in due course

"frj111" wrote:


Try running System Information for Windows.

Download from he

'SIW | Download' (http://www.gtopala.com/siw-download.html)

This will quickly tell you a lot about your system.


--
frj111


OK, downloaded SIW and run it. The external USB drive shows up correctly
under Storage Devices, but it seems Vista itself cannot display it in Windows
Explorer. Since no driver was found for the device, I guess that’s what is to
be expected. Since Vista on the laptop couldn’t install the device
automatically, unlike Vista on my desktop PC, I still suspect some system
service issue.

Does anyone know if there is a way to reset all system services – in one go
- to their default state?

I guess that would show whether my suspicion is correct or not ...

Thanks again for all help.

The following is given with no warrantee what so ever.

I was able to get rid of a crippled partition on one of my SAT drives.

Boot to a windows 98 se floppy disk. Be sure legacy USB is enables in
ROM-BIOS.

Using FDISK try to select the USB drive. If you can see it and it is
an NTFS partition you can remove it by using the delete non-DOS
partition task.

Be careful doing the wrong thing with this tool can turn your system
into a smoking pile of rubble.


--
frj111

"frj111" wrote:


The following is given with no warrantee what so ever.

I was able to get rid of a crippled partition on one of my SAT drives.

Boot to a windows 98 se floppy disk. Be sure legacy USB is enables in
ROM-BIOS.

Using FDISK try to select the USB drive. If you can see it and it is
an NTFS partition you can remove it by using the delete non-DOS
partition task.

Be careful doing the wrong thing with this tool can turn your system
into a smoking pile of rubble.


--
frj111


Thanks, but perhaps you misunderstood: My issue is with connecting EXTERNAL
drives, such as USB handy drives or hard disks.

Besides, your idea “might� work under Win 98, on an outside chance perhaps
even under XP (so I doubt it), but it’s not going to do much good under Vista.

Apart from that, I have no intentions of removing a drive or partition, but
gaining access to it – in other words I want to make a visible (and usable)
in Vista’s explorer so that I can read from or write to it. Hence I need
Vista (this is a Vista only issue) to load its default driver so that it can
recognise the EXTERNAL USB drive.

Thanks for all.

My point (that I did not make very clear) is that I have encountered
problems that Vista by itself simply will not solve. When that happens
often times a tool from an earlier operating system will in fact provide
a solution. I have for years unlocked windows installs to which the
user has forgotten the password. The tool I used was a LINUX boot
floppy.

Good luck


--
frj111