Irritating Change of Drive Behaviour - USB 3.0 Multi-Card Reader Drive

PC Pilot · 04 Sep 2020

Maybe it's my age, but this seemingly trivial problem is just driving me crazy!!

Despite all of my troubleshooting efforts I have so far been unable to identify any solution to making each of the 5 integral drives within a recently installed internal (5.25") USB 3.0 Multi-Card Reader display alongside the other SSD/HDD drives (even when empty) within Windows Explorer (Windows 10, 2004) - this was their initial default behaviour.

Upon the initial installation of this Silverstone SST-FP59B USB 3.0 Multi-Card Reader everything performed as expected with each of the 5 integral drives displayed alongside my other other SDD/HDD's operating in exactly the manner I have been familiar with for many years and also as happens my preferred choice. As this was a new build X299 system new devices were progressively added and their accompanying drivers installed using the excellent Snappy Driver Installer (SDI) to bring everything up to date. At some point (regrettably missed by me) the card reader drive behaviour reverted to displaying ONLY the 'in-use' multi-card reader drives S & U with drives T, V & W now completely absent (see the attached X299 screenshot).

OK, at this point you're likely thinking that's simple enough ....from Settings>File Explorer Options and then from the 'View' tab and remove the check mark from 'Hide Empty Drives'. Nah, not that simple!! See it's already been unchecked...

Neither does any amount of Driver roll-backs/re-installs cause these pesky drives to revert to their earlier behaviour nor do any basic troubleshooting steps succeed in identifying the mysterious cause which brought about the change and as a result I now have a kind of obsessive compulsion driving me to find the answer to this irritating issue!

I was beginning to think maybe I'd imagined the whole thing when it occurred to me that I should try connecting it to my spare (now largely redundant) aging X58 system (which is also running 2004) and see what happens.

As if by magic, there they all are again!! This time as Drives E to I, showing both in-use and empty drives, ALL 5 of them displayed alongside the other SSD/HDD's (C & D) and the somewhat older MBox USB 2.0 Internal Multi-Card Reader it has replaced (Drives T to W - displaying the familiar behaviour I am accustomed to - see the attached X58 screenshot). How can such an insignificant change in behaviour be so difficult to diagnose and ultimately resolve??

Quick comparison of both systems has gleaned no obvious differences and whilst it is likely that this issue will at best be seen as trivial to you good folks, I remain (obsessively?) compelled to seek the answer. Perhaps the solution lies in an obscure hidden setting or maybe a registry hack?

Can anybody lend their kind assistance and shed some light as to:

1) How I might rectify the problem and restore the original (preferred) behaviour.

2) What was responsible for changing the behaviour in the first place.

Many thanks in advance of your help and advice.

PC Pilot

hsehestedt · 05 Sep 2020

I admit that I don't know the answer, but the one big question in my mind is whether there is a difference in drivers between the two systems. Is it possible that one system is running whatever default drivers Windows installs whereas the other has specific drivers from the manufactured of the mem card reader / writer?

If you compare the systems, is there a difference? Apologies if that is one of the items you have already checked.

PC Pilot · 06 Sep 2020

Hi hsehestedt, no apologies necessary!!

Once connected to the old (X58) system and displaying the drives as expected I tried (as best as I was able to trace them) to preserve the (default) driver set (before windows could make any changes 🙂 ...or for that matter anything else!) in order to try them on the X299...

This driver set was then applied to the X299 but alas no change in behaviour was observed

It is almost as if the drivers from another installation/update have pushed the behaviour change as part of their routine ....though I am at a complete loss to imagine which devices could be responsible!

Perhaps it’s my age! ..but I have developed a sort of OCD over this one and I am determined to get to the bottom of it so all/any input is welcome and gratefully received 🙂

PC Pilot

Fabler2 · 06 Sep 2020

Maybe Windows isn't assigning a drive letter automatically. Just a suggestion to check Disk Management and see if you can manually assign a drive letter to one of them as a test?

rqt · 06 Sep 2020

You might want to check the File Explorer folder settings to ensure that in addition to "Hide empty drives" not being selected you have "Show all folders" selected (down near the bottom of the list).

PC Pilot · 06 Sep 2020

Hi Fabler2 & rqt,

Thanks for your input folks very much appreciated

....

1) Ah Fabler2 perhaps you might have something here, re-assignment of Drive letters through Disk Management functions as normal in respect of the occupied drives however the other (empty) drives don't appear AT ALL in Disk Management . Now that you have reminded me of this I checked the older (USB 2.0) Multi-Card Reader still installed in the X58 (as per screenshot above) and in Disk Management ALL 4 drives (T, U, V & W appear irrespective as to whether they are occupied OR empty) and can have their Drive letters re-assigned at any point. Any thoughts on why? ....and steps to resolve??

2) rqt I can confirm that 'Show all folders' is indeed selected.....

Thanks for your assistance guys

PC Pilot

Fabler2 · 06 Sep 2020

Another thing to try is run the Hardware and Devices trouble shooter. Open Windows PowerShell (Admin) and copy and paste msdt.exe -id DeviceDiagnostic and run. See if that can fix the issue.

Hopefully @jumanji will see the thread.