I was surprised that I was able to use Firefox 1.0 to follow your link and download that update. Usually, I get a message stating that I have to use MSIE.

Don't know if this update will fix my little aggravation. When running SP1 on my "old" 0.9 gHz machine, often, during power up, my firewire drives would not enumerate properly. I might spend half an hour unplugging and then re-connecting them before I could get XP-Pro to recognize them. There was a downloadable fix for that problem (heads-up for it I found on this forum, of course!!), and, once installed, that enumeration problem was vanquished permanently. Then, I purchased a new machine that was supplied with the XP SP2 update disc.

Since installing SP2, I have again been plagued with a similar enumeration problem. The update file that fixed the problem in SP1 would not install on SP2, so, I've been battling this goofy problem for a few months, now.

Here's a description of my current problem: I move my new setup about quite a lot. The processor is a PCX Shuttle 3.0 gHz machine to which I hook six external firewire drives. If I fail to hook the drives up exactly as they were when I last powered down my system, then, the system takes what seems like forever to power up (seems to hang on that black "Windows" screen with the green bars thingy running across the bottom). When the desktop finally appears, if I check MY COMPUTER, I may see one or two, or perhaps none of my six external drives in my list of drives.

At that point, my only choice is to disconnect all externals, and plug each drive in separately. Sometimes, it may take 30 seconds or so after I plug-in one of those drives before I hear that da-DUNK sound that signals XP's recognition of a newly hot-plugged external device. Then, I see the little window appear showing that the system is scanning the drive and offering me an option to open the folder, "play" a file, or do nothing.

I have to repeat this process with each of the six drives until all are properly "mounted" (I think that's the correct term). Once I've successfully completed this routine, I can power down and back up without a problem until the next time I inadvertently alter the setup (alteration can be as simple as forgetting to turn on one of the external drives before booting up).

If I don't pull all external drives when this happens, and simply try to unplug/re-connect those that have not enumerated, I might get them all mounted, but, then, they start randomly losing their connection, or Windows starts flashing these ridiculous "delayed-write" errors telling me that the data on drive "M" or whatever has been lost. Good thing I know not to take most Windows messages at face value.

Has anyone else experienced a similar problem - or is my little glitch unique to me?

I'm not panicked when this happens, since I now know exactly how to overcome the problem, but it can certainly set a client on edge if it occurs at the start of a recording session, and it is a huge waste of my time.

Thanks in advance for any tips.
Caruso