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Many Windows Vista users complain of a concern for detection of USB peripherals, including storage devices such as USB sticks or external USB hard drives, ...
All versions of Vista seem affected (Premium, Basic, Ultimate ...) and apparently no patch is required to address this concern at Microsoft (well to my knowledge).
After I faced the same problem for a few days, I found a solution that may be helping some of you ...

Firstly, I will reframe the symptoms of the problem because, of course, this does not affect all the problems with USB devices on Vista.

Symptoms:

This problem is not systematic and often occurs after several weeks / months of using Windows Vista. Some say it is caused by installing the system on a utility to use a CD / DVD such virtual Daemon Tool or Alcohol 120% and 50%.
Apparently, it is installing the SCSI driver software that could cause this anomaly.

Each time you insert a USB device (USB stick or external hard drive), Vista tells you that the driver is being installed.
After some time, despite a local search and online, the system informs you that the driver could not be installed because not found (or it has been found but the installation ends in failure).
Ultimately, your device does not install and is available in your workplace (level CD / DVD and USB keys next to the hard drives for external hard drives).

Finding:

It must first check if your device is "recognized" by the system by going to Device Manager after you insert your device into the USB port.
To get to the device manager: right click on the icon "Computer" => "manage" => "Device Manager".

You will normally find your device with a yellow exclamation point (indicating that the driver is not installed).
External hard drives usually indicate "USB TO IDE" next to the exclamation point and USB sticks indicate "USB Storage" (or equivalent).

Solutions:

Several solutions are possible but in each case they do not always work depending on the machine.

The first solution is to specify "manual" to Vista, where are located your USB drivers (C: \ windows \ system32 by default).
This solution often works and if you want to try a tutorial image very well explained is available blog.developpeur.org.

If, as was the case for me, this solution does not solve the problem, here is one I used.

First, check whether the drivers of USB storage devices are securely in place, ie in the location C: \ windows \ inf.
The three files to find in this folder are:
- Usbstor.inf
- Usbstor.pnf
- Usbstor.sys

In the picture above they are present but if they are not it will take them back for it in this spot that Vista searches for drivers.

To replace them we will copy them from another folder in Vista where they are actually present.
Go in to C: \ Windows \ System32 \ DriverStore \ FileRepository and find the folder usbstor.inf_XXXXX "(it is possible that there have several like me on the picture below, but no matter, choose the first).

Open this folder you should find all three files.

Copy these 3 files in your C: \ windows \ inf and back in the device manager.

Double click (left) on the line for your device (with exclamation point) and choose "reinstall driver" or "update driver".

If everything is conducted correctly, your USB key or external hard drive should install correctly and finally becomes available in your workplace.

If this article helped you or, conversely, you know still Difficulties with your USB devices, you can visit our forums to discuss.

We hope this tutorial can be used to some, thank you for having read and enjoy with Windows Vista

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