Vista does not "see" USB drives

[jintan]

Since I have had to do this repair quite a few times now, I thought it might help to post it here. Not the only solution, but it has certainly worked when tried. The problem is that on a Vista system, when a USB/flash/thumb/pen drive is inserted, Vista fails to be able to locate the correct drivers for it.

Just need to locate either/both of the following files, and delete them:

C:\Windows\INFCACH.1
C:\Windows\Inf\INFCACH.1

Then reboot. On reboot Vista will then work from fresh .inf (install file) information and be able to load the drives correctly.

Before looking for the files, make sure you can View Hidden Files. Also uncheck "Hide Extensions for Known File Types"

[Aaflac]

Thanks for the info, Jin!

Did you need to edit file permissions to delete these files?

[jintan]

Not usually. But you do need to make sure you can View Hidden Files. Also uncheck "Hide Extensions for Known File Types"

[jintan]

I did need to return to this topic. You were right - in most cases the person does need to change the file permissions before they can make any file changes. I did this repair on a different system after posting here and it reminded me it was necessary. Good spot.