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USB Drive port shown as Removable Disk?

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USB drive ports do not show up on Windows Explorer with my Windows systems until a USB stick is inserted. It would then show up as a Removable Disk.

Why do some systems always show all USB drive ports as Removable Disks regardless of whether any USB sticks are inserted?

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Clarifications

In reply to USB Drive port shown as Removable Disk?

Clarifications

Try this out for your USB issue(s)…

In reply to USB Drive port shown as Removable Disk?

Download here:
http://www.uwe-sieber.de/files/usbdlm.zip

Read more here:
http://www.uwe-sieber.de/usbdlm_e.html

I think

In reply to Try this out for your USB issue(s)…

you misunderstood my question. I have come across some Windows computers that show USB drives on Windows Explorer even though nothing is inserted in the drives. My computers however wouldn’t show any USB drive until a USB stick is inserted. Why? Has there anything got to do with any settings?

It is that way.

In reply to USB Drive port shown as Removable Disk?

It will show only when USB stick is inserted and will show as removable as it is removable!!!???

That’s what I believe

In reply to It is that way.

as that is what I have found on all of my computers. Then one day I found some computers in a computer club show the USB drives on the Windows Explorer regardless.

Card Reader

In reply to USB Drive port shown as Removable Disk?

PCs which continually show assigned logical drives on USB port(s) have a memory card reader installed which uses a single USB port. That is normal when a card reader with several slots is installed.

I will check that

In reply to Card Reader

but why? Are you saying that USB ports will show up on the Windows Explorer regardless where a card reader is installed?

Re: USB Drive port shown as Removable Disk?

In reply to USB Drive port shown as Removable Disk?

A USB port isn’t a drive. A drive can be attached there but as long as there is no drive attached it is just an unused port.
There is no such thing as a USB port with a permanent drive letter. Card Readers have drive letters because the drive is always there and only the media comes and goes like in a CD/DVD drive.

Uwe

But I do see some computers

In reply to Re: USB Drive port shown as Removable Disk?

have a permanent drive letter on each of its USB port.

Re: But I do see some computers

In reply to But I do see some computers

Believe me, this is impossible. No drive, no drive letter.
Maybe this computer had an internal card reader or a printer with a card reader and therefore shown some “Removable” drives.

Uwe Sieber

Are you saying that

In reply to Re: But I do see some computers

installation of a card reader will cause the show-up of all USB ports even though no USB stick is inserted?

They are definitely USB ports as I can see.

Re: Are you saying that

In reply to Are you saying that

No. I think what you have seen are the drive letters of a card reader’s card slots.
If you attach a USB drive it will get an additional drive letter.

There are

In reply to Re: Are you saying that

three of them. Are you saying that if the computer has a six-in-one card reader, then there will be six permanent drive? If that is what you meant, I shall check.

Never seen more than five

In reply to There are

The maximum number of logical card slots of a USB cardreader I have seen so far is five.
Even if there are more slots, some slots might share the electrical contacts, so they cannot be used at the same time, for instance a normal SD slot and a Mini SD slot.

Uwe Sieber missed saying it in the above explaination…

In reply to There are

But yes…it would display the same number of drives as the card reader….so, if you had a 3 in 1 card reader…it would display 3 additional drives.

You can download this little program “USBDeview”..

In reply to USB Drive port shown as Removable Disk?

This will show you ALL of your USB connections plus others, it is not what you are looking for but it is more detailed for you. It comes in either 32 bit or 64 bit versions. It is freeware.
Scroll down to the end of the page and you will see the links to click on for the download.

http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/usb_devices_view.html

Or download here:
http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/usbdeview.zip

64 bit here:

http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/usbdeview-x64.zip

Thanks!

In reply to You can download this little program “USBDeview”..

I shall check when I next get a chance to access that particular computer.

You can use “SPTD” to see if that works for you…

In reply to USB Drive port shown as Removable Disk?

Read and Download here (32 or 64 bit versions):
http://www.duplexsecure.com/downloads

I downloaded the 32-bit version but

In reply to You can use “SPTD” to see if that works for you…

when I ran it, it said “SPTDinst-v169-x86.exe is not a valid Win32 application”.

Not as common

In reply to USB Drive port shown as Removable Disk?

But the user hasn’t set external HDD or Thumb Drives with Permanent Drive Letters have they?

That can cause some screwy thing to happen with some Windows Systems. 😉

Col

Not

In reply to Not as common

that I know of. I shall check.

Drive letters

In reply to USB Drive port shown as Removable Disk?

Yes. It has to do with Card readers and USB sticks

Most card readers installed will have a drive letter assigned
But you can make the drive letters disappear I believe. There are some settings that need to be changed. I believe it is in the Folder Options. Hide drive letters when nothing is inserted. (is in Windows 7). Not sure of other O/S

I understand that

In reply to Drive letters

the option only hides empty card reader, not empty USB ports.

want to know the logic behind what is a USB drive vs what is a USB port?

In reply to USB Drive port shown as Removable Disk?

Think TheChas could better explain the theory behind the universal serial buss in conjunction with plug and play devices and the theory behind what is considered a logical drive in x86 architecture and how operating systems recognize and use “drives”.

But what everyone here posting is saying is that the universal serial buss is a “port” where a “port” is defined as “something” that plugs into it.

A “drive” is a storage container.

For a computer to be able to use a storage container, it first must know about it. That’s where universal serial buss and plug and play “software” comes in.

I used to call it USB drive until

In reply to want to know the logic behind what is a USB drive vs what is a USB port?

part-way through this thread I read USB port. Then I supposed I was wrong.

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