Peripheral drives turn off but not on

I have ports on the front of my computer to insert various types of solid state cards, such as SD cards. After I write to the card I use the "Safely Remove Hardware" function to remove the card. Unfortunately, this turns off the J:, K:, L: and M: solid state ports. I am not able to read or write another card until I reboot the unit and then the ports are recognized again.

How do I turn the ports on again after I have used the "Safely Remove Hardware" function to remove the card?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

J

 

Hi Jim,

Are you talking about a built in Flash card reader that reads many different cards? That device is "J,K,L,M'. One letter for each slot. System treats them same as Hard Drives. Why shut it off? It wasn't intended to be shut off. It will reappear on next boot. ?????

Good luck, JimP

 

Yep.

Affirmative.

Right again.

I wasn't sure if it was better to turn them off through the removal function or not. They (the ubiquitous "they") say that you are not supposed to disconnect USB devices without first turning them off. I assumed this is the same for these drives.

I was merely wondering if there is a way to turn them back on without a reboot. If I do not have to turn them off to remove the card I will cease doing that.

Thanks,

J

 

If you have ReadyBoost (Vista/Win7) and it's activated for the card slot, and the card meets the speed requirements then there may be data left on the card if you just pull it out. Formatting the card in your camera (or other device) afterwords should clear it.

The safely remove hardware is treating your entire card reader bank as one unit. It's likely plugged into a USB port inside the computer case, and since the entire bank funnels through that one connection it's treating as one connection. You could open the case and see what that cable connection looks like. If it's USB then you could just reroute it to a USB port that you can reach on the outside and just unplug the bank then replug back in.

 

cabbiinc,

Ah so ...

 

plodr,

That is what happens to me. I lose all of the drive letters; and there is no response when I insert a card.

Sounds like the cure is ... DON'T DO THAT!

Thanks,

J

 

Hi

Yes, the Safely Remove Hardware feature is STRICTLY for USB devices. The reason for it is because Universal Serial Bus technology doesn't only transmit file data, but device and driver data flows through it as well (which is why when you connect a USB device, Windows recognizes the specific device connected). If data being transferred, even not file related, is interrupted, it can cause problems with the computer communicating with that device in the future. Thus, telling the computer to stop transmitting and receiving from it via using the Safely Remove Hardware feature is the best way to go.

Memory cards in a card reader should never need or use that function, as they aren't USB devices. As it's already been mentioned, using that function disconnects the card reader (the actual USB device in this situation) from the machine. Simply wait several seconds after any file transfers/deletion before removing the card.

 

You were correct.

The drives all disappear when I use the safely remove USB icon; and there is no response when a card is inserted after that. They are not recognized as existing when I check Windows Explorer. It is as though they were never there at all.

They work just fine until I use the safely remove USB icon. Then POOF! they are gone.

 

Thanks. I just didn't understand why the device would be listed on the disconnect list.

I think cabbiinc nailed it with his post. The device group is likely connected to a USB port inside the machine so the disconnect function sees it and any drive letter associated with it.

 

Hi Again JimPeel,

If you want to remove the card reader yes you would shut it down first. If it's built in it would be very difficult to disconnect so better to leave it on.

More Luck, JimP