sp3/usb problems

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 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

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