Windows 7 "critical update": USB drives don'

Laurence wrote on 6/3/2010, 6:57 AM
I turned on my computer this morning and suddenly most of my external USB drives don't work (I have one that still does). I check and sure enough, Windows did an unrequested "critical update". I thing the danger was that somebody might plug in a USB drive with a virus, so they disabled the PC's ability to read potentially dangerous USB drives! I tried doing a system restore but as is often the case, I can't restore past this critical update. This just sucks. I was supposed to meet a client today and I'm dead in the water.

Anyone else run into this or have any idea how I can fix it? Here's somebody else who has the same problem:

http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en/vistawu/thread/0e1ae59f-ec8c-402d-9b41-f1340bdee5f3

I tried this solution but it didn't work either:
http://www.online-tech-tips.com/computer-tips/usb-device-not-recognized/

Comments

Laurence wrote on 6/3/2010, 8:25 AM
A little more on this. It seems like Windows 7 after the critical update does not like partitions made by older operating systems.On my Windows 7 PC the drives I'm having problems with show up as healthy drives but with any sort of partitions. Meanwhile if I plug the same drives into an XP computer, the partitions and all the data on those partitions is still there. I'm going to copy all my files to drives that still work in Windows 7, repartition the problem drives in Windows 7, and if it works copy all my files back onto the drives. Several hours just to get back to the same place I was before the critical update.
TheHappyFriar wrote on 6/3/2010, 8:28 AM
Not sure of the folder, but WinXP & Vista updates are all in the Windows install folder as separate hidden folders.

You should be able to uninstall all updates too. I've uninstalled critical updates.

I know that with 2k, XP & Vista you can tell it to NOT download/install any updates w/o permission. I'd suggest you change that.
Laurence wrote on 6/3/2010, 8:34 AM
Regular updates seem to pay attention to my update settings, but critical updates seem to just install themselves anyway. I tried using the system restore to go to back before the update but it failed.
Former user wrote on 6/3/2010, 9:20 AM
http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2041838

See if this helps.

Dave T2
FilmingPhotoGuy wrote on 6/3/2010, 11:31 AM
Funny you should mention this. This yesterday I tried to connect my sons 200GB hard drive to my eSata port. Win7 would not boot after that. After disconnecting the drive I had to do a system restore and Kaspersky was dammaged. The last restore point was listed as a "critical" update.

It's difficult to prove if it was the MS update or not but it did send a trickle of sweat running down my back.
pmooney wrote on 6/3/2010, 12:10 PM
If it is mainly USB problems you are dealing with, where drives are not recognized or functioning properly, try this:

Disconnect/power down your USB devices
Power down your computer
UNPLUG your computer for 30 seconds
Reboot to the desktop
Power up/connect your USB drives 1 by one (if they show up with yellow arrows in your device manager, select uninstall, and then scan your computer for new hardware changes)

This should work, unless the update really messed things up.
srode wrote on 6/3/2010, 7:15 PM
Just plugged in my USB drive and it works fine - Win 7 64 bit.
Rob Franks wrote on 6/3/2010, 8:00 PM
I have windows 7 (64 bit). Just checked updates and the only one that pops up is an update for silverlight. (By this I'm assuming my system is up to date, including the update you speak of). I'm having no issues with usb drives.

One of those usb drives was formatted by XP quite some time ago.
ushere wrote on 6/3/2010, 9:17 PM
no problems with usb's (win7/64) but the silverlight update refuses to install with 'unknown' error 656(?)

ok, sorted. apparently i had an older version of silverlight. downloaded latest from m$ and update took thereafter.
Laurence wrote on 6/4/2010, 4:39 AM
I am finding that my Windows 7 laptop only occasionally recognizes external drives that were formatted with earlier operating systems. The solution is to delete the partition on the external drive, reformat and generate a fresh partition. Kind of a pain, but after I do this the drives work consistently.