sp3/usb problems

[Ed Mc]

Since upgrading to sp3 I've had numerous problems with usb
ports. I used one to plug in a Firelite external drive. It would show
up as removable drive I:. I uninstalled sp3. I'm back to sp2, but now
my external drive does not show up in My Computer. A check of Tweakui
shows many of the available drive letters having a red dot with a
question mark inside. Drive I: is one of them. Any ideas what the dots
mean? Since I use this external drive to backup my system I'm in a bit
of a panic! I used Device Mgr. to remove the usb ports and then they
reinstalled on the next boot. Any help please!! TIA

 

[Ed Mc]

Re: sp3/usb problems

Ed Mc wrote:
> Since upgrading to sp3 I've had numerous problems with usb ports.
> I used one to plug in a Firelite external drive. It would show up as
> removable drive I:. I uninstalled sp3. I'm back to sp2, but now my
> external drive does not show up in My Computer. A check of Tweakui shows
> many of the available drive letters having a red dot with a question
> mark inside. Drive I: is one of them. Any ideas what the dots mean?
> Since I use this external drive to backup my system I'm in a bit of a
> panic! I used Device Mgr. to remove the usb ports and then they
> reinstalled on the next boot. Any help please!! TIA
I may be on to something here.... I ran Partition Magic and can
see the Firelite external drive. It says the partition is hidden. If I
unhide it will it then show up in My Computer? If not can I reverse
the unhidden process? I guess what I'm asking is "is the drive
supposed to be hidden? TIA

 

[Ron Badour]

Re: sp3/usb problems

Ed,

On my XP MCE system with Tweak UI installed, all the drive boxes are marked
and the ones with a red dot are partitions that do not exist on my machine.
I have multiple partitions and a DVD and CDRW--all are marked and no red
dot. I don't have an external hard drive.

You should be able to hide and unhide partitions (drives) at will using PM
with no adverse effects. I don't believe the drive should be hidden--how
could you use it otherwise? I can recall having two hard drives in a PC
several years ago with W98 and W98SE on one hard drive and Win 95 and Win
95b on the other. I used either PM or BootIt NG (forget which one) to hide
the hard drive that was not being used.
--
Regards

Ron Badour
MS MVP Shell User


"Ed Mc" <namvtn@comcast.invalid> wrote in message
news:M-OdnYGbIZx5e_fVnZ2dnUVZ_h3inZ2d@comcast.com...
> Ed Mc wrote:
>> Since upgrading to sp3 I've had numerous problems with usb ports. I
>> used one to plug in a Firelite external drive. It would show up as
>> removable drive I:. I uninstalled sp3. I'm back to sp2, but now my
>> external drive does not show up in My Computer. A check of Tweakui shows
>> many of the available drive letters having a red dot with a question mark
>> inside. Drive I: is one of them. Any ideas what the dots mean? Since I
>> use this external drive to backup my system I'm in a bit of a panic! I
>> used Device Mgr. to remove the usb ports and then they reinstalled on the
>> next boot. Any help please!! TIA
> I may be on to something here.... I ran Partition Magic and can see
> the Firelite external drive. It says the partition is hidden. If I unhide
> it will it then show up in My Computer? If not can I reverse the unhidden
> process? I guess what I'm asking is "is the drive supposed to be hidden?
> TIA