Flash drive won't work on school PC?

scott1598 · 12-03-08, 05:24 PM

basically, i can't use my flash drive on my computer in my room. it works on some computers in the school, but not on others and especially the one in classroom where i really need it.

i have ample USB ports available, but when i plug into any it says something like "drive is used by something else or unavailable". i don't know exactly what it means, but if the USB is free why can't i plug and use?

is there something i can easily disable to make it work on my pc?

please help and thanks in advance.

TheKobra · 12-03-08, 05:29 PM

The school must have the USB ports disabled on the PCs. They are smart for doing so but bad for you. The IT dept. must know what they are doing at your school. There is no way I would allow users to connect a USB (thumb) drive to my network. You are just asking for problems.

scott1598 · 12-03-08, 05:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheKobra

The school must have the USB ports disabled on the PCs. They are smart for doing so but bad for you. The IT dept. must know what they are doing at your school. There is no way I would allow users to connect a USB (thumb) drive to my network. You are just asking for problems.

but they aren't disabled...i can plug a remote for the projector and it works fine...

fumanstan · 12-03-08, 05:52 PM

Are there numerous other drives mapped on the network on that PC?

When you plug in an external drive it tries to map it to the next letter after all your other physical drives. If a network drive is already mapped to that letter, it won't work. For example, if you have your hard drive as C:\, a disc drive as D:\, the thumb drive would try and give itself the letter E:\. If you have E:\ set to something on the network, it will error.

Not sure if this is the case with you, but i've seen this happen at work. Especially as people get multiple hard drives and more network mappings.

scott1598 · 12-03-08, 06:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fumanstan

Are there numerous other drives mapped on the network on that PC?

When you plug in an external drive it tries to map it to the next letter after all your other physical drives. If a network drive is already mapped to that letter, it won't work. For example, if you have your hard drive as C:\, a disc drive as D:\, the thumb drive would try and give itself the letter E:\. If you have E:\ set to something on the network, it will error.

Not sure if this is the case with you, but i've seen this happen at work. Especially as people get multiple hard drives and more network mappings.

i don't know. but is there a way i can disable a drive i think is not assigned to anything?

fumanstan · 12-03-08, 06:27 PM

Well assuming you're on a Windows XP machine, if you open up My Computer you should be able to see a list of all your drives and all the drive letters and if it's a network drive you should see a path associated to it that says what server it points to.

If this is actually the problem you're having, you should be able to just right click and unmap the earliest letter.

That's just if this ends up being the cause of the problem, if you don't see any other drives then nevermind

Jay G. · 12-03-08, 09:15 PM

I agree with fumanstan. Here's an article on it with some possibly useful utilities:
Drive Letter Conflict with Network or Subst Drives

The article notes that MS provides a hotfix for XP. This hotfix is included in SP3 for XP. Vista doesn't have this issue.

mikehunt · 12-04-08, 09:51 PM

right click my computer, select manage, go to disk management and assign it an unused drive letter

12-03-08, 05:24 PM	#1
scott1598 DVD Talk Legend Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: I want to go to there. Posts: 12,220	Flash drive won't work on school PC? basically, i can't use my flash drive on my computer in my room. it works on some computers in the school, but not on others and especially the one in classroom where i really need it. i have ample USB ports available, but when i plug into any it says something like "drive is used by something else or unavailable". i don't know exactly what it means, but if the USB is free why can't i plug and use? is there something i can easily disable to make it work on my pc? please help and thanks in advance. __________________ "stranger than fiction" DVD collection "almost famous" SteelBook™ collection "Even though I am no better than a beast, don't I have the right to live?"

12-03-08, 05:52 PM	#4
fumanstan DVD Talk Legend Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Irvine, CA Posts: 20,740	Are there numerous other drives mapped on the network on that PC? When you plug in an external drive it tries to map it to the next letter after all your other physical drives. If a network drive is already mapped to that letter, it won't work. For example, if you have your hard drive as C:\, a disc drive as D:\, the thumb drive would try and give itself the letter E:\. If you have E:\ set to something on the network, it will error. Not sure if this is the case with you, but i've seen this happen at work. Especially as people get multiple hard drives and more network mappings. __________________ XBox Live: Fu Man Stan "I've never derived "joy" from either comicbooks or torture porn, so you can imagine how I feel about the mainstream marriage of the two in The Dark Knight" - baracine

12-03-08, 06:27 PM	#6
fumanstan DVD Talk Legend Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Irvine, CA Posts: 20,740	Well assuming you're on a Windows XP machine, if you open up My Computer you should be able to see a list of all your drives and all the drive letters and if it's a network drive you should see a path associated to it that says what server it points to. If this is actually the problem you're having, you should be able to just right click and unmap the earliest letter. That's just if this ends up being the cause of the problem, if you don't see any other drives then nevermind __________________ XBox Live: Fu Man Stan "I've never derived "joy" from either comicbooks or torture porn, so you can imagine how I feel about the mainstream marriage of the two in The Dark Knight" - baracine

12-04-08, 09:51 PM	#8
mikehunt DVD Talk Hero Join Date: Aug 2000 Location: Bartertown due to it having a better economy than where I really live, Buffalo NY Posts: 27,623	right click my computer, select manage, go to disk management and assign it an unused drive letter __________________ http://www.ytedk.com/ Vote for freedom not political parties. .... MOΛΩN ΛABE كافر Well, maybe back to back. But I gotta tell you, I'm not 100% on this.

12-03-08, 05:29 PM	#2
TheKobra DVD Talk Gold Edition Join Date: Nov 1999 Location: Stuck doing T.P.S. repots for Lumbergh!!!! Posts: 2,367	The school must have the USB ports disabled on the PCs. They are smart for doing so but bad for you. The IT dept. must know what they are doing at your school. There is no way I would allow users to connect a USB (thumb) drive to my network. You are just asking for problems.

12-03-08, 09:15 PM	#7
Jay G. DVD Talk Limited Edition Join Date: Oct 2001 Posts: 5,608	I agree with fumanstan. Here's an article on it with some possibly useful utilities: Drive Letter Conflict with Network or Subst Drives The article notes that MS provides a hotfix for XP. This hotfix is included in SP3 for XP. Vista doesn't have this issue.