OFF TOPIC - Computer Help Needed

[dreamtheatervt]

This doesn't relate to Max FB, but it affects my ability to play it.

I installed the software for my digital camera last night, and all of the sudden, several of my drives dissappeared. The missing drives are my memory card reader (5 drives), a second hard drive installed in my computer, and USB portable HD contains all my backup files and my music library, and the second HD contains most of my non-OS related applications (Max FB included). It also doesn't seem to be reading any of my USB devices (portable HD, printer, thumb drives, etc.).

Quick restore didn't help, neither did uninstalling the camera software then trying the quick restore.

Anybody know what I can do?

[garysorrell]

I dont think I can help, but this exact thing happened to my sons Dell. All of a sudden only one USB port will read anything.
I have no idea why it happened but it was just all of a sudden. I will google around and see if I can turn anything up.

[David Winter]

Well it certainly looks like your digital camera software installed USB drivers that messed up the works.
 
Who manufactures the camera? You may need to contact them.
 
As a general rule you don't need to install software for cameras or MP3 players anyway. Plug them in and they act like hard drives.

[dreamtheatervt]

I called Kodak yesterday and spent 3 fruitless hours on the phone with them, but drivers isn't something that we looked at.  I'll look into that, thanks Dave.

[quixian]

VT - had something similar happen to me around Christmas.  I had to do the following:
 
1.  Use a compressed air cleaner to clean out all of your usb port entries.  Also do this for any memory card slots as are found on newer PCs.
 
2.  I re-installed the latest USB 2.0 drivers - I believe I found them on Intel's website.  Maybe someone else will find them before I check later at home (I'm at the office now and can't do too much surfing).  I'll check the thread later and see if you've had any success - good luck!
 
These two things seemed to fix the problem.  Not only did all the drives disappear in my case, but device manager would show a "USB Hard Drive" attached that was NOT attached.

[quixian]

VT - just realized that I was able to update my USB 2.0 drivers via Intel's site b/c they were the manufacturers of my motherboard.  Your motherboard manufacturer might be different.

If you are still having problems and not getting anywhere, please post your PC's model # type, et al here and I (or someone even more knowledgable than I) can help you locate replacement drivers that should help fix the problem.

Assuming you are running XP or Vista, and you have System Restore turned on, you could try giving that a shot too.  Best of luck and hope you are up and running again soon.

[dreamtheatervt]

System restore was the first thing I tried, didn't work.  I tried updating the drivers as well - no dice.
 
The computer doesn't detect the second HD in BIOS.
 
If I had access to a single USB port so I could back things up I'd just format and reinstall everything, but that's off the table for now as well...arg...