Another XP USB-drive annoyance...

[Mini-Me]

Hi all.
:)

This post is actually a 2-part problem with the same device.


PART 1:

My external USB hard-drive on one machine(a 160GB drive) - XP keeps forgetting it's there.

Generally, this happens when you fire up the machine in the morning.
XP does not see the drive.
Now, if you cycle the power to the USB drive, XP picks it up right away, and you can access it just fine, untill you shut down at the end of the day.


PART 2:

The problem is annoying, but I can live with having to cycle power if this is what has to be done, but the bit that frustrates me the most, is that this drive is partitioned into 6 chunks, and XP promptly runs AutoPlay on each of these partitions, and you have to click CANCEL about 12 times before the system calms down... :mad:

This really annoys me, so I went into each partition, and disabled the autoplay thing(set it so that with "Mixed Content" it was to "Take no action"), but every time you have to cycle power to the USB drive, it tries to scan again, and does not seem to remember that I told those partitions NOT to autoscan...

Most of these partitions are backup data, and contain literely thousands and thousands of small files like application data, Open Office docs, Pictures, etc, and the scan process takes some time to complete, if you let it proceed.

I thought that if you turn off the AutoPlay, it should not try to scan the partitions again after that has been set?
:confused:

I have downloaded the Autofix.exe from MS, and ran it while I powered up the drive, but it reports that there is no problem to be found - wonderful...
:mad:

Anyone else have this problem with USB drives, and did you find a way to stop this from happening?

When you look in AutoPlay settings, once the power has been cycled, sure enough, AutoPlay has defaulted back to "Prompt me each time to choose an action" - it is NOT remembering that I told it to DO NOTHING when it detects the partition. Extremely annoying...

Does anyone know of a registry hack that could fix this?

[Pentium100]

For the first problem, I do not know the solution.

To disable autorun for all devices, you have to click Start, then Run. Enter "gpedit.msc" and click OK.
When group policy editor opens, go to Computer configuration->Administrative templates->system. Find an entry called "autorun", right click it, select properties. Then Select "enabled" and from the drop down menu select "All drives". Click OK.

[Mini-Me]

Thanks for that - will try this shortly, and post back with results.
:)

ADDITIONAL - This works!
:)

Thanks very much, Pentium100 - this is a great bit of info.
I will file this, for future reference.
:)

[Paul Komski]

It looks as if the "Turn off autoplay" settings in gpedit is similar to the MyComputer >> Autoplay >> Types settings in TweakUI for XP.

It would have been interesting to have tried this when I had the same problem. I did however solve my own problem from the autoplay settings on each relevant partition (RClick MyComputer >> Properties >> Autoplay). The "Trick" was to go throught the drop down choices for "Music Files", "Pictures" and "Mixed Content" choosing Take No Action and clicking Apply FOR EACH SETTING. The section for "Video Files" wouldnt stick for some reason but didnt seem to affect anything.

Once Take No Action was firmly set for each of the three stated options on each partition and the system rebooted my own problem with these annoying prompts was solved.

The problem is also partitally solved ;) if there is no data in the partition because there is obviously nothing that can autoplay.

[Pentium100]

I do not need autoplay at all, so I disabled it in gpedit. It is a bit faster...

[Mini-Me]

One other thing about USB HDD's and the fact that they are vanishing(see start of this thread, "Part-1"), is that once you cycle power and they re-appear, XP forgets that they were shared on the network, and you have to re-share them every single day when you fire up the machine. This does not really anger me that much, but it is an annoyance...

Anyone know how to get around this?

[Pentium100]

Then create a .BAT file with:

NET SHARE SHARENAME=X:\

(this will share drive X: as "sharename" and enable full access without password. is you wand to set some options, go to command line and type

NET HELP SHARE )

When you cycle the power, run this file and the drives will be shared.

[Mini-Me]

Cool, thanks!
:)

Will try this tonight...