[FortHoodTX]

This issue is so simplistic.. I shouldn't even have to be posting about it. Unfortunately, it's a little too frustrating to dwell upon, so I'll seek the words of others.

I plug in my EP Surfboard 4.0gb USB flash drive, and immediately I get a prompt to install software. This device is USB plug and play. It works fine on my laptop [XP Pro]; it just pops right up. Why am I getting this prompt? I also have a 512mb drive that I use on both computers, and it pops up fine.

Vista searches my computer, and searches online, and still can't find the driver, named "USB Mass Storage Device".. I already have external HDD disks and other "mass storage" running off this desktop PC, so why does Vista suddenly need software for this measly flash drive? It won't even assign it a drive letter until it gets some sort of software.

I tried using the driver in my \Windows\System32\Drivers folder, but it says there are no suitable drivers..

What next?

[Elvandil]

Sounds like Vista simply cannot identify the drive. Try removing all other USB devices so that the drive is the only USB device.

Also, try opening Device Manager and uninstalling the drive. Show Hidden Devices and uninstall anything similar to that drive. Plug it in and reboot.

Good luck.

[davehc]

You could try again with installing the XP driver. But instead of the path you chose, choose \Windows and be sure to tick the box "search sub folders" I can see , surfing, that most relevant pages say XP does not need drivers. I, m not sure whether that means it uses generic drivers or they are incuded in the installation package?

[JohnWill]

I have an EP Surfboard 2.0 gig FLASH drive, I just tried it in my Vista, and it was recognized fine. Hopefully Elvandil's fix will get you going.

Drivers for USB mass storage devices are common, but there are unique parameters that are stored for each device in the registry, sort of a type-code. Sometimes these get recognized incorrectly. One reason I've discovered is connecting multiple USB devices without letting the previous one be fully initialized. That seems to launch the detection logic off into space.

[wozi]

Grr!!! I have the same problem, very frustrating!

If you wanna make the device work then when it tries to search your computer after searching online, let it search c:\windows\ then it will find the drivers, the first time you use a device you will have to do this, repeating the procedure until all the drivers are installed.

Hopefully there will be a fix for this soon!