Question : Problem: USB Drive detected, but not appearing in My Computer. Detailed info and error message

I plugin a USB thumb drive. The laptop makes the sound that a USB device has been successfully connected. In Device Manager, I can see the thumb drive listed and working normally. In Disk Management, I can see the thumb drive's information and what drive it should be mapped to (Let's say M: for this description). It seems reasonable that the computer knows the drive is there. However, in My Computer, the M: drive does not appear. This isn't a case of a network drive hiding the drive. I have tried several different drive letters (set in the Disk Management) and there is no change. The USB drive does not show up under My Computer.

Here is some additional things I think will help. If you open a command prompt (cmd) and type in M:, it works fine. You can do a dir and everything is there. If you do a Start -> Run -> M:\, you get the error "This file does not have a program associated with it for performing this action. Create an association in the Folder Options control panel." If you do a Start -> Run -> M:\files\ it opens up as normal. If you click the "go up a level" button, it will open the top level of the drive. If you open the C: from My Computer, then try to change to M:\ you get an error about M:\ not existing.

Hopefully someone has seen this problem before and knows of a fix.

Answer : Problem: USB Drive detected, but not appearing in My Computer. Detailed info and error message

there is a file called "ExplorerXP" that can be found on the site, http://www.g4tv.com. This file (freeware) runs as an enhanced windows explorer and recognizes USB drives (such as the SanDisk drives) correctly. One can hotswap and this small utility (which looks like windows explorer) will recognize USB drives without the silly "portable media" assignment under the control panel that Windows XP does in windows explorer. When recognized like this, one does not have full access. Also, I think that drive letter assignment is not an issue as it seems to be with windows explorer in XP (especially with SP2 installed). Hope this helps....