3 of 4 USB drives only partly recognized.

Win10-64-Pro-1709

This just started yesterday.

I have 4 portable USB drives:
Toshiba 2 TB
Seagate 1 TB
Samsung SSD 1 TB
WD Elements 1 TB

The Toshiba is permanently attached and is used for files-folders
differential backup nightly. The other three are rotated for periodic
full image backups.

Now none of the other three are fully recognized by Windows. When any
of them is plugged in, Explorer does not show it. The removable
devices icon, when right clicked., shows the device, but not the drive
name as it used to.

All three work fine on my Win-7 machine, and I have run diskchk /f on
them. All reported no errors.

I have tried them in the same USB port to which the Toshiba is usually
attached. I have tried removing the USB devices with Device Manager
and allowing Windows to reinstall them on reboot. I have of course
tried shutdown and reboot. I have tried having one plugged in while
rebooting, so it is attached at boot as is the Toshiba.

Kind of at my wit's end here...

-dan z-


--
Someone who thinks logically provides
a nice contrast to the real world.
(Anonymous)

slate_leeper wrote:
Win10-64-Pro-1709

This just started yesterday.

I have 4 portable USB drives:
Toshiba 2 TB
Seagate 1 TB
Samsung SSD 1 TB
WD Elements 1 TB

The Toshiba is permanently attached and is used for files-folders
differential backup nightly. The other three are rotated for periodic
full image backups.

Now none of the other three are fully recognized by Windows. When any
of them is plugged in, Explorer does not show it. The removable
devices icon, when right clicked., shows the device, but not the drive
name as it used to.

All three work fine on my Win-7 machine, and I have run diskchk /f on
them. All reported no errors.

I have tried them in the same USB port to which the Toshiba is usually
attached. I have tried removing the USB devices with Device Manager
and allowing Windows to reinstall them on reboot. I have of course
tried shutdown and reboot. I have tried having one plugged in while
rebooting, so it is attached at boot as is the Toshiba.

Kind of at my wit's end here...

-dan z-



Go into Disk Manager and assign them a letter.

Ed (very logical, unlike the real world)
(:_

ken1943 wrote:
On Thu, 3 May 2018 17:15:50 +0100, Ed Cryer
wrote:

slate_leeper wrote:
Win10-64-Pro-1709

This just started yesterday.

I have 4 portable USB drives:
Toshiba 2 TB
Seagate 1 TB
Samsung SSD 1 TB
WD Elements 1 TB

The Toshiba is permanently attached and is used for files-folders
differential backup nightly. The other three are rotated for periodic
full image backups.

Now none of the other three are fully recognized by Windows. When any
of them is plugged in, Explorer does not show it. The removable
devices icon, when right clicked., shows the device, but not the drive
name as it used to.

All three work fine on my Win-7 machine, and I have run diskchk /f on
them. All reported no errors.

I have tried them in the same USB port to which the Toshiba is usually
attached. I have tried removing the USB devices with Device Manager
and allowing Windows to reinstall them on reboot. I have of course
tried shutdown and reboot. I have tried having one plugged in while
rebooting, so it is attached at boot as is the Toshiba.

Kind of at my wit's end here...

-dan z-



Go into Disk Manager and assign them a letter.

Ed (very logical, unlike the real world)
(:_

+1 I have run into the no drive letter many times, even with eSata


I have several portable HDs that I move between Win7 and Win10 systems.
Every now and again one system will complain, saying that the disk needs
scanning before use. So I tick yes, and 10 seconds later all is ok.
Except that when I then move it to the other Win system it needs a
letter assigning.
Just why, I don't know; but it's such minor trouble that I just do it.

Ed

On Thu, 3 May 2018 17:15:50 +0100, Ed Cryer
wrote:

slate_leeper wrote:
Win10-64-Pro-1709

This just started yesterday.

I have 4 portable USB drives:
Toshiba 2 TB
Seagate 1 TB
Samsung SSD 1 TB
WD Elements 1 TB

The Toshiba is permanently attached and is used for files-folders
differential backup nightly. The other three are rotated for periodic
full image backups.

Now none of the other three are fully recognized by Windows. When any
of them is plugged in, Explorer does not show it. The removable
devices icon, when right clicked., shows the device, but not the drive
name as it used to.

All three work fine on my Win-7 machine, and I have run diskchk /f on
them. All reported no errors.

I have tried them in the same USB port to which the Toshiba is usually
attached. I have tried removing the USB devices with Device Manager
and allowing Windows to reinstall them on reboot. I have of course
tried shutdown and reboot. I have tried having one plugged in while
rebooting, so it is attached at boot as is the Toshiba.

Kind of at my wit's end here...

-dan z-



Go into Disk Manager and assign them a letter.

Ed (very logical, unlike the real world)
(:_


Yes! I finally found that late yesterday. (You can find anything
with Google -- once you have figured out the correct search terms.)

Thanks for the reply!


--
Someone who thinks logically provides
a nice contrast to the real world.
(Anonymous)

slate_leeper wrote:
On Thu, 3 May 2018 17:15:50 +0100, Ed Cryer
wrote:

slate_leeper wrote:
Win10-64-Pro-1709

This just started yesterday.

I have 4 portable USB drives:
Toshiba 2 TB
Seagate 1 TB
Samsung SSD 1 TB
WD Elements 1 TB

The Toshiba is permanently attached and is used for files-folders
differential backup nightly. The other three are rotated for periodic
full image backups.

Now none of the other three are fully recognized by Windows. When any
of them is plugged in, Explorer does not show it. The removable
devices icon, when right clicked., shows the device, but not the drive
name as it used to.

All three work fine on my Win-7 machine, and I have run diskchk /f on
them. All reported no errors.

I have tried them in the same USB port to which the Toshiba is usually
attached. I have tried removing the USB devices with Device Manager
and allowing Windows to reinstall them on reboot. I have of course
tried shutdown and reboot. I have tried having one plugged in while
rebooting, so it is attached at boot as is the Toshiba.

Kind of at my wit's end here...

-dan z-



Go into Disk Manager and assign them a letter.

Ed (very logical, unlike the real world)
(:_


Yes! I finally found that late yesterday. (You can find anything
with Google -- once you have figured out the correct search terms.)

Thanks for the reply!



I recently introduced three new portable HDs to a Win10 system, one
after the other, unplugging them after letter-assignment. The system
gave them all "G".
When I have time I'm going to plug them all in together. I think we can
all guess just what will happen; the first will go in as G, the second
two will be unassigned until I assign them in Disk Management, and then
they'll be H and I. That is, of course, unless other USB ports are
carrying other drives at the time.

MS have my sympathy over this. I've tried to work out something better,
but I can't. It's a devilish situation to try and cater for all the
possible permutations of USB-assignment, and I think MS have the least
dangerous one.

Ed

On 5/4/2018 1:53 PM, Ed Cryer wrote:
slate_leeper wrote:
On Thu, 3 May 2018 17:15:50 +0100, Ed Cryer
wrote:

slate_leeper wrote:
Win10-64-Pro-1709

This just started yesterday.

I have 4 portable USB drives:
Toshiba 2 TB
Seagate 1 TB
Samsung SSD 1 TB
WD Elements 1 TB

The Toshiba is permanently attached and is used for files-folders
differential backup nightly. The other three are rotated for periodic
full image backups.

Now none of the other three are fully recognized by Windows. When any
of them is plugged in, Explorer does not show it. The removable
devices icon, when right clicked., shows the device, but not the drive
name as it used to.

All three work fine on my Win-7 machine, and I have run diskchk /f on
them. All reported no errors.

I have tried them in the same USB port to which the Toshiba is usually
attached. I have tried removing the USB devices with Device Manager
and allowing Windows to reinstall them on reboot. I have of course
tried shutdown and reboot. I have tried having one plugged in while
rebooting, so it is attached at boot as is the Toshiba.

Kind of at my wit's end here...

-dan z-



Go into Disk Manager andÂ* assign them a letter.

Ed (very logical, unlike the real world)
(:_


Yes!Â*Â* I finally found that late yesterday. (You can find anything
with Google -- once you have figured out the correct search terms.)

Thanks for the reply!



I recently introduced three new portable HDs to a Win10 system, one
after the other, unplugging them after letter-assignment. The system
gave them all "G".
When I have time I'm going to plug them all in together. I think we can
all guess just what will happen; the first will go in as G, the second
two will be unassigned until I assign them in Disk Management, and then
they'll be H and I. That is, of course, unless other USB ports are
carrying other drives at the time.

MS have my sympathy over this. I've tried to work out something better,
but I can't. It's a devilish situation to try and cater for all the
possible permutations of USB-assignment, and I think MS have the least
dangerous one.

Ed

How about a batch:

SET "_A-HDD=XX" & SET "_B-HDD=XX" & SET "_C-HDD=XX"
FOR %%F in (G H I) DO IF EXIST "%%F:\Atest.txt" SET "_A-HDD=%%F" NUL
FOR %%F in (G H I) DO IF EXIST "%%F:\Btest.txt" SET "_B-HDD=%%F" NUL
FOR %%F in (G H I) DO IF EXIST "%%F:\Ctest.txt" SET "_C-HDD=%%F" NUL

On each HDD make a "Do Not Remove" text file as Atest.txt, etc.
Then after batch is run each HDD will have an identifier A-HDD , etc.
The first SETs let you check if HDD is present

--
Zaidy036

Zaidy036 wrote:
On 5/4/2018 1:53 PM, Ed Cryer wrote:
slate_leeper wrote:
On Thu, 3 May 2018 17:15:50 +0100, Ed Cryer
wrote:

slate_leeper wrote:
Win10-64-Pro-1709

This just started yesterday.

I have 4 portable USB drives:
Toshiba 2 TB
Seagate 1 TB
Samsung SSD 1 TB
WD Elements 1 TB

The Toshiba is permanently attached and is used for files-folders
differential backup nightly. The other three are rotated for periodic
full image backups.

Now none of the other three are fully recognized by Windows. When any
of them is plugged in, Explorer does not show it. The removable
devices icon, when right clicked., shows the device, but not the drive
name as it used to.

All three work fine on my Win-7 machine, and I have run diskchk /f on
them. All reported no errors.

I have tried them in the same USB port to which the Toshiba is usually
attached. I have tried removing the USB devices with Device Manager
and allowing Windows to reinstall them on reboot. I have of course
tried shutdown and reboot. I have tried having one plugged in while
rebooting, so it is attached at boot as is the Toshiba.

Kind of at my wit's end here...

-dan z-



Go into Disk Manager andÂ* assign them a letter.

Ed (very logical, unlike the real world)
(:_


Yes!Â*Â* I finally found that late yesterday. (You can find anything
with Google -- once you have figured out the correct search terms.)

Thanks for the reply!



I recently introduced three new portable HDs to a Win10 system, one
after the other, unplugging them after letter-assignment. The system
gave them all "G".
When I have time I'm going to plug them all in together. I think we
can all guess just what will happen; the first will go in as G, the
second two will be unassigned until I assign them in Disk Management,
and then they'll be H and I. That is, of course, unless other USB
ports are carrying other drives at the time.

MS have my sympathy over this. I've tried to work out something
better, but I can't. It's a devilish situation to try and cater for
all the possible permutations of USB-assignment, and I think MS have
the least dangerous one.

Ed

How about a batch:

SETÂ* "_A-HDD=XX" & SETÂ* "_B-HDD=XX" & SETÂ* "_C-HDD=XX"
FOR %%F in (G H I) DO IF EXIST "%%F:\Atest.txt" SET "_A-HDD=%%F" NUL
FOR %%F in (G H I) DO IF EXIST "%%F:\Btest.txt" SET "_B-HDD=%%F" NUL
FOR %%F in (G H I) DO IF EXIST "%%F:\Ctest.txt" SET "_C-HDD=%%F" NUL

On each HDD make a "Do Not Remove" text file as Atest.txt, etc.
Then after batch is run each HDD will have an identifier A-HDD , etc.
The first SETs let you check if HDD is present


How far have you tested it?

Ed

Ed Cryer wrote:

I've tried to work out something better,
but I can't. It's a devilish situation to try and cater for all the
possible permutations of USB-assignment

How about using directory mounts rather than drive letters?

Create e.g. a C:\Removable folder, then underneath that, create folders
Toshiba_2TB
Seagate_1TB
Samsung_SSD_1TB
WD_Elements_1TB

Plug-in each drive drive in turn, and assign it to the relevant path to
mount ...

On 5/5/2018 7:43 AM, Ed Cryer wrote:
Zaidy036 wrote:
On 5/4/2018 1:53 PM, Ed Cryer wrote:
slate_leeper wrote:
On Thu, 3 May 2018 17:15:50 +0100, Ed Cryer
wrote:

slate_leeper wrote:
Win10-64-Pro-1709

This just started yesterday.

I have 4 portable USB drives:
Toshiba 2 TB
Seagate 1 TB
Samsung SSD 1 TB
WD Elements 1 TB

The Toshiba is permanently attached and is used for files-folders
differential backup nightly. The other three are rotated for periodic
full image backups.

Now none of the other three are fully recognized by Windows. When any
of them is plugged in, Explorer does not show it. The removable
devices icon, when right clicked., shows the device, but not the
drive
name as it used to.

All three work fine on my Win-7 machine, and I have run diskchk /f on
them. All reported no errors.

I have tried them in the same USB port to which the Toshiba is
usually
attached. I have tried removing the USB devices with Device Manager
and allowing Windows to reinstall them on reboot. I have of course
tried shutdown and reboot. I have tried having one plugged in while
rebooting, so it is attached at boot as is the Toshiba.

Kind of at my wit's end here...

-dan z-



Go into Disk Manager andÂ* assign them a letter.

Ed (very logical, unlike the real world)
(:_


Yes!Â*Â* I finally found that late yesterday. (You can find anything
with Google -- once you have figured out the correct search terms.)

Thanks for the reply!



I recently introduced three new portable HDs to a Win10 system, one
after the other, unplugging them after letter-assignment. The system
gave them all "G".
When I have time I'm going to plug them all in together. I think we
can all guess just what will happen; the first will go in as G, the
second two will be unassigned until I assign them in Disk Management,
and then they'll be H and I. That is, of course, unless other USB
ports are carrying other drives at the time.

MS have my sympathy over this. I've tried to work out something
better, but I can't. It's a devilish situation to try and cater for
all the possible permutations of USB-assignment, and I think MS have
the least dangerous one.

Ed

How about a batch:

SETÂ* "_A-HDD=XX" & SETÂ* "_B-HDD=XX" & SETÂ* "_C-HDD=XX"
FOR %%F in (G H I) DO IF EXIST "%%F:\Atest.txt" SET "_A-HDD=%%F" NUL
FOR %%F in (G H I) DO IF EXIST "%%F:\Btest.txt" SET "_B-HDD=%%F" NUL
FOR %%F in (G H I) DO IF EXIST "%%F:\Ctest.txt" SET "_C-HDD=%%F" NUL

On each HDD make a "Do Not Remove" text file as Atest.txt, etc.
Then after batch is run each HDD will have an identifier A-HDD , etc.
The first SETs let you check if HDD is present


How far have you tested it?

Ed

Used every night in an unattended batch on a single SD card to copy
files off. For my reply just modified for several HDDs. On Win 7 problem
was removing SD for some reason and then replacing it occasionally
assigned different drive letter so following batch commands would not
work. The "XX" let the batch skip commands if SD was not present.

--
Zaidy036