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Problem seeing a MP3 drive in "My Computer"

John_Essex
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Problem seeing a MP3 drive in "My Computer"

Ok I've had a search for this but can't find anything so perhaps a genius out there can give me a pointer.  Smiley
Having just bought a MP3 player I plugged it into USB port on my Desk top PC and it is seen by the machine that gives me several options on what to open it with incuding open folder to view files.
It also appears on "My Computer" as Sansa Express portable media player and clicking on it opens up the drive to allow dragging and dropping of MP3 files into the machine.
Now the problem.  Sad
When I connect it to my laptop it sees the device but the only options I get are to open it with Windows Media Player to transfer files to it.
It also does not appear in "My computer" as a drive so there is no way to access it other than with Windows Media Player which I hate  Angry
Trying on another desktop machine and it shows different again up as a "Removable Hard disc drive"
I have been through everthing I can think of in Windows settings but can't find anything that would suggest a reason.
Anyone got any ideas Huh
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dvorak
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Re: Problem seeing a MP3 drive in "My Computer"

Have you had a look in Administrative Tools > Computer Management > Disk Management to see if it is there?
It could be that the drive is been hidden by another network drive.
Or i think, though can't remember where right now, that there is a setting which stops drives above a certain letter appearing in my computer.
Of course that is if you are running XP.
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John_Essex
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Re: Problem seeing a MP3 drive in "My Computer"

Quote from: adiewoo
Have you had a look in Administrative Tools > Computer Management > Disk Management to see if it is there?
Of course that is if you are running XP.

Yes running Xp on both the Desktop and the Laptop.
I have been all through the Computer management options and no its not showing under the disk management section.
On both machines though it does show up as a "Windows Portable Device" in the "Device Manager" via the "System" option in the control panel.
paulby
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Re: Problem seeing a MP3 drive in "My Computer"

Have you got any mapped network drives on your PC?  If you have, try re-assigning the mapped drives to letters at the end of the alphabet.  Windows assigns drive letters to USB sticks, iPods, etc. starting at the first free letter after your hard drives and CD/DVD drives regardless of the fact that there's a mapped drive.  This results in the USB drive being effectively hidden.
Also, if you've used TweakUI (Microsoft Power Toy for Xp) to hide drive letters that aren't used, you'll need to unhide them again.
Have a look at this Microsoft article.
This page may also be of some use.
John_Essex
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Re: Problem seeing a MP3 drive in "My Computer"

No mapped drives on the laptop PC so that shouldn't be the cause and no hidden drives either.
Your last link looks worthy of further investigation though where it mentions strange effects by other software.
What I might try if I get time, is to put my original smaller hard drive back in the laptop, reformat it and do a fresh windows installation with nothing else installed.  If that works then it should prove that the issue is down to a conflict somewhere.
Strat
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Re: Problem seeing a MP3 drive in "My Computer"

My newly acquired MP3 Player disappears or reappears in My Computer depending on what I am doing with it. If it's OS is shut down I can see it and move files around. If I fire it up it disappears.
Slightly off topic...I have acquired a few 'MP3' music files and when I drag and drop them onto the Player it does not recognise them. If I 'convert them to MP3' using Winamp and then drag and drop them to the player it recognises them and plays them. Puzzled Undecided
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John_Essex
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Re: Problem seeing a MP3 drive in "My Computer"

Quote from: Strat
My newly acquired MP3 Player disappears or reappears in My Computer depending on what I am doing with it. If it's OS is shut down I can see it and move files around. If I fire it up it disappears.

It works fine either on or off on my desktop and another PC. Its just when I plug it into my laptop that it forces me to use the "oribble" windows media player to transfer files.
Quote
If I 'convert them to MP3' using Winamp and then drag and drop them to the player it recognises them and plays them. Puzzled

Youv'e got me puzzled as well. if they are already MP3 then how can you convert them to MP3  Huh
pd
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Re: Problem seeing a MP3 drive in "My Computer"

Quote from: Strat
Slightly off topic...I have acquired a few 'MP3' music files and when I drag and drop them onto the Player it does not recognise them. If I 'convert them to MP3' using Winamp and then drag and drop them to the player it recognises them and plays them. Puzzled Undecided

Does the size change when you 'convert' them.  If so it could be that they are encoded at too high a bitrate for the player to handle.  Another possibility is that there is something in the header information of the file it doesn't recognise and Winamp is correcting it.
Strat
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Re: Problem seeing a MP3 drive in "My Computer"

Quote from: John_Essex
Youv'e got me puzzled as well. if they are already MP3 then how can you convert them to MP3  Huh

Precisely. I thought that they might be other audio files with an .mp3 extension...quite easily done.
Quote from: pd
Does the size change when you 'convert' them.  If so it could be that they are encoded at too high a bitrate for the player to handle.  Another possibility is that there is something in the header information of the file it doesn't recognise and Winamp is correcting it.

Good thinking...I'll check that. Thanks.
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John_Essex
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Re: Problem seeing a MP3 drive in "My Computer"

#Strat
Funny but I've just come across something very similar.
I tranfered a MP3 file to the player and it could see it but wouldn't play it. Showed it as paused and no amount of button pressing would unpause it. (it plays ok on the computer though)
So with your problem in mind I used my conversion program to convert from MP3 to MP3 and that did the trick. It plays fine now.  Smiley
MisterW
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Re: Problem seeing a MP3 drive in "My Computer"

Is the laptop the only one running Media Player 11 possibly ?
If WMP11 is installed I think it will insist on using MTP rather than allowing the Sansa to be mounted as a
USB MASS storage device.
 

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John_Essex
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Re: Problem seeing a MP3 drive in "My Computer"

Nope.
Version 9 on the laptop and I have disabled windows media player to see what happened.
All it does is just give me the option to use Win amp to transfer files  or ignore.
Still shows nothing in my computer though.  Cry
MisterW
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Re: Problem seeing a MP3 drive in "My Computer"

Has the laptop ever had WMP 10 or above on it ?

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MisterW
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Re: Problem seeing a MP3 drive in "My Computer"

John,
I still think it could be an MTP problem .
Take a look at this http://www.anythingbutipod.com/forum/showthread.php?t=12426 and see if its any help

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John_Essex
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Re: Problem seeing a MP3 drive in "My Computer"

Quote from: ianwarrilow
Take a look at this http://www.anythingbutipod.com/forum/showthread.php?t=12426 and see if its any help

Never had anything above 9 on it but the above has worked.
Followed the instruction given but after that I couldn't see it at all. Looked in device manager and it was there but needed the driver.
Asked it to update the drivers and now I can see not one but 2 drives "E and F" in my computer.
Clicking on drive E gives me access.  Smiley