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Mounting USB drive on 'locked' usb port?

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May 29, 2006 - 9:43am
#1
xhg
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Mounting USB drive on 'locked' usb port?

I frequently use portable apps in an internet cafe (in russia).

The computers there have an accessible usb port at the front but most of the times (9 out of 10) when i plug one of my usb drives in, this does not mount. The drives 'power up' (so the usb port actually works) but they don't mount in windows (windows xp pro), i.e. the usual 'new hardware found' etc. dialogs and later the drive do not appear.

Any ideas how i can mount those drives? Any hacks possible? Won't do any bad things on the pcs, promised Wink

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May 29, 2006 - 11:48am
Bruce Pascoe
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...

You can ask the computer's administrator what's up, but it sounds like the system doesn't allow access to any drives that didn't exist when the system was booted. In that case, there's probably not much you can do about it.

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fatcerberus@yahoo.com  [aim: fatcerberus]
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May 29, 2006 - 12:47pm
cmmehl
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power issue

Sounds to me as if it could be a power issue. If it works sometimes ...

I have made the same experience - it *seems* that the drive powers up, however it's just spinning and nothing happens on the computer. However, when I add power to the drive (either through a second USB cable, if that is foreseen, or by external power supply), the drive shows up all fine.

If it is just a matter of the drive not showing up in the explorer, you can access it manually by typing the drive-letter (normally the next free one) into the adress-bar of the explorer.

Cheers
Chris

Always on the move - love all portable apps!

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May 30, 2006 - 12:00pm
Ciego
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I had this problem at work

I had this problem at work also. I do not know if this is the same thing that happens to you, but my computer has many network drives mapped on it and when you plug in a USB device, it automatically gets assigned the next drive letter. When the next drive letter is a mapped network drive, my computer does not notice this and still names the USB device as the next drive letter. What ends up happening then is that I have a USB device with the same drive letter as a mapped network drive.

To remedy the situation, just go Start / Control Panel / Administrative Tools / Computer Management / Disk Management /

you will find your drives there and you can select what drive letter you want the USB to be mounted as.

I hope this helps ..... You may have to have administrative access though.

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May 30, 2006 - 1:03pm
(Reply to #4)
Bruce Pascoe
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I do that all the time at home.

The nice thing about the Disk Management trick is that whatever drive letter you assign to the drive is permanant (at least until an automatically assigned drive letter eclipses it). Assign a high letter--say my personal favorite, M:--and the drive letter will never change again.

Note that a faster way to get into Disk Management is to right-click My Computer, choose Manage, then select Storage::Disk Management.

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fatcerberus@yahoo.com  [aim: fatcerberus]
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May 30, 2006 - 5:00pm
(Reply to #5)
Ashes for Tears
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Keep on mind, the local

Keep on mind, the local admin may have blocked off removable drive access. i got lucky, and after I patched PStart into a U3 launchpad, I had access to my folders and programs. It's also a little risky to play around with system settings in a public access or professional environment, unless you are really good at covering your tracks. Which may make things all the worse if you're caught. Smile

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May 31, 2006 - 12:48am
(Reply to #6)
Bruce Pascoe
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...

I said that before, that the computer may have blocked access to any drives that weren't there at boot-time. I've never seen such a setting in action, but I've heard it exists.

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fatcerberus@yahoo.com  [aim: fatcerberus]
I have no witty remarks or quotes to share at the moment.

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May 31, 2006 - 11:29pm
(Reply to #7)
Ashes for Tears
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Actually...

I meant something a bit different. Apparently the computers I access have locked down anything identified as a USB drive (I haven't been able to test a PHDD yet). As part of a U3 drive is identified as a CD Rom, it isn't locked down. If they weren't allowing access to anything not there at boot, this would not be possible.

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