Vista won't recognise USB Ext. HD

[Rocky]

A pal's Vista machine won't recognise his old USB backup Maxtor external HD, says disk unreadable (or similar).

Plug it into a XP machine and it works fine, all the files are available.

Looks like a vista issue... any ideas?

[Pave Low]

Try this

go to C:\Windows\inf and delete the file INFCACHE.1 (make a separate backup copy of the file first though + you may need to give the user account permission to delete it)

then check in device manager for an unknown device (Yellow triangle) if found (and it's the storage drive) remove the entry (by right-clicking and select "uninstall")

then reboot, log in and then plug the external drive in

[Rocky]

Ok, I'll try that, thanks.

[Rocky]

go to C:\Windows\inf and delete the file INFCACHE.1 (make a separate backup copy of the file first though + you may need to give the user account permission to delete it)

Vista will not let the logged in admin delete the file.

I googled around, switched off UAC, still refuses access to delete it.

[Pave Low]

it usually only has "Users" READ permission + "System"FULL

you need to set permissions on the file using the security tab to add the user with FULL permissions

[right click on INFCACHE.1]

Properties

security tab

edit

add

[type in the user account name & click on ok]

[then click on users name so it's highlighted and and tick allow full control]

apply

[yes to confirm]

ok

ok

or you can boot from the vista DVD and use this method

(01) insert your Vista setup DVD and boot your PC from that by pressing any key when prompted;

(02) when it ask you for your language, be sure only to choose the one matching your current keyboard layout and click "Next";

(03) Windows is ready to install... but you MUST click "REPAIR YOUR COMPUTER" option, in the lower left corner of the window;

(04) System Recovery will look for installed operating systems: once found, click it and then click "Next";

(05) a quick scan for common problems will start: if something wrong is found you'll be prompted for an automatic system restore, that you shall abort by clicking "Cancel" button.

(06) Now you should see the "System Recovery Options" window: select "Command Prompt" and prepare for a tasty DOS session...

(07) go in your system disk by typing C: (or the letter corresponding to your system disk, followed by a colon);

(08) reach your INF system folder by typing CD \Windows\INF

(09) set a variable to let the file listing being sorted by extension (file type) and then by name, with folders grouped at the top by typing the following command: SET DIRCMD=/p /a /ogen

(10) now, let's get the files list: type DIR

You'll see an enormous amount of INF and PNF files, a bunch of subfolders and a few files having different extension and a really recent date: yeah... you've found them!!

(11) Let's do the hard stuff... type each one of these commands with care and being sure that your command prompt is pointing to \Windows\INF folder:

DEL DRVINDEX.DAT

DEL INFPUB.DAT

DEL INFSTOR.DAT

DEL INFSTRNG.DAT

DEL INFCACHE.*

DEL SETUPAPI.*

All of the above files shouldn't be write-protected nor hidden, so you don't have to see any error following each command.

(12) When finished, type EXIT and the command prompt window will close itself.

(13) Click "RESTART" button and remove Vista Setup DVD from optical unit.

Now, by having completely destroyed the built-in database, Windows will launch its rebuild at the first time you'll plug a new Plug'n'Play peripheral or when you'll start the "Add new hardware" procedure in Control Panel.

Note: you can just do only the "DEL INFCACHE.*" or you can delete the other files too, I would probably just do the INFCACHE as that should be all you need for your problem