I've got a USB card reader (3.5" bay) and this connects to my m/board via internal USB, there is also a standard USB port on this card reader. When I installed the card reader XP (Pro SP2) detected each different reader as a virtual drive, so when I inserted an SD card etc I could drag and drop from within Explorer.
I took some photos yesterday and went to drag and drop them from the SD card, but all of the drives that were assigned have gone, only my installed drives now exist, the USB port on the front still works, and when I connected my Ipod to that another drive appeared in Explorer.
All the USB devices appear within control panel etc, so I removed them, rebooted the machine, XP did the usual - found new hardware etc, and merily went away and installed these devices, back into Explorer, but still no drive letters assigned.
Did it 'automangle' the drives initially without loading a specific driver? If so, you may need to install the specific driver for it to continue to work (don't ask me why!!!)
Does it add a drive once you slot the SD card in even though it doesn't show the empty bay before?
Everything was fine, each card slot was another virtual drive, insert a card and voila you would see the change through Explorer. Everything is working, as I have said, no errors, but it just doesn't map any drives as before. when I plug the ipod in it gives me another virtual drive as I would expect, just not working for the memory cards
Oh and BTW - your card reader, I'd remove the whole thing (physically) from the PC and make sure all evidence of it is removed from the OS and start again. Consider adding the driver to XP before you re-add the hardware - try both.
That's my next thing... but it's a right pain, as it's onboard and each pin is a seperate connection, then removing all of the entries etc. There are no drivers etc, well non that came with the unit as XP found everything when I installed it originally.
As for the challenge, yeah I doubt it'll be a problem, I talk enough kak on here anyway, doubling that shouldn't be hard!
Tried removing the USB drivers etc from XP again... reboot still the same...
Then looked the USB card reader never loses power even when the PC is switched off, removed the mains, repowered and voila, obviously re-initialised something