# USB Mass Storage Driver Problem (INFCACHE.1)



## Kektek (Jan 1, 2008)

Hi folks,

I recently received a Western Digital 120GB Passport drive (http://www.wdc.com/en/products/Products.asp?DriveID=261). When I plug it into my computer running Vista Ultimate, Windows doesn't automatically identify the necessary drivers. I end up with an "Unknown Device" for which Vista can find no drivers.

I have successfully attached it to my brother's Alienware laptop (running Vista Home Premium) and it instantly recognizes it and installs the necessary drivers, which are found in c:\windows\system32\drivers. I've also had the same success on my sister's Vaio running Vista (I'm not sure which version, I don't think it's Ultimate). My version of Windows has the exact same driver files as listed on their computers, but even when I point the driver wizard to the c:\windows\system32\drivers folder, it is unable to find them.

I read a couple of reports that indicated this is a problem with the INFCACHE.1 file found in c:\windows\inf -- 

http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc...HRlcm5hbCBkcml2ZSB2aXN0YQ**&p_li=&p_topview=1

as well as

http://www.texxors.com/2007/05/09/how-to-find-lost-windows-vista-drivers-when-adding-a-new-device/

-- however I've attempted this fix about a dozen times without any success.

At first, I deleted INFCACHE.1 and Vista didn't regenerate it when I reinstalled another, working USB device (I tried several, including my Viewsonic built-in monitor webcam and my keyboard). I found a fix on Microsoft's support site for this: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/940199/en-us

After installing the hotfix, INFCACHE.1 would regenerate successfully, and I tried the method described in the two links above. Nothing seemed to change how Windows recognized my drive. I tried deleting it and restarting, I tried deleting it and regenerating it with a different device about six times consecutively, and I tried deleting it and just plugging the drive in.

I also tried installing this hotfix, since it addressed a number of other USB problems:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/941600/en-us

That also didn't seem to help.

Does anyone have any other ideas? It seems like Ultimate might be the problem since the drive has worked on two Vista PCs that didn't have Ultimate. But I don't know what part of Ultimate could be causing the problem, or if it has nothing to do with the version of Vista.


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## Kektek (Jan 1, 2008)

Hmm... it seems like the only thing that will really solve this is a reinstall of Vista. That's about the last thing I want to do.

Also, since I have a Vista Upgrade CD but not my original XP CD, will I even be able to reinstall?


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## Kektek (Jan 1, 2008)

I tried reinstalling Vista and that didn't solve the problem. I'd like to call Microsoft next week and maybe see if they have any other ideas, but I'm not sure if I would have to pay to talk to their tech support.


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