USB Memory Stick: Suppressing the What to Do Form

[Gene Wirchenko]

Hello:

I have set all of the responses under AutoPlay for what is
supposed to happen when media is inserted to "Take no action". Despite
this, sometimes, when I insert my USB memory stick, I get asked what
to do. It only happens occasionally.

How do I get rid of this?

What is the significance of "Use AutoPlay for all media and
devices" (which I have checked)? All "Take no action" should render
it ineffective, right?

Sincerely,

Gene Wirchenko

 

[KCB]

Hello:

I have set all of the responses under AutoPlay for what is
supposed to happen when media is inserted to "Take no action". Despite
this, sometimes, when I insert my USB memory stick, I get asked what
to do. It only happens occasionally.

How do I get rid of this?

What is the significance of "Use AutoPlay for all media and
devices" (which I have checked)? All "Take no action" should render
it ineffective, right?

Sincerely,

Gene Wirchenko

I don't know if this is a fix, but my computer seems to think my flash drive
is a new piece of hardware if I put it in a different USB slot. I
configured my Autoplay like you did, but noticed if I put the flash drive in
a slot that it hadn't been in, it would pop up the "what to do" dialog.
Now, I only use one specific slot for it, and the dialog never appears.

 

[Paul]

I don't know if this is a fix, but my computer seems to think my flash
drive is a new piece of hardware if I put it in a different USB slot. I
configured my Autoplay like you did, but noticed if I put the flash
drive in a slot that it hadn't been in, it would pop up the "what to do"
dialog. Now, I only use one specific slot for it, and the dialog never
appears.

Behavior is dependent on the device having a serial number.

Not all USB devices have serial numbers. When a device doesn't have
a serial number, every time you plug it into a "new" port, it creates
a "new" entry in the registry.

See the section here "USB serial number" for more details.

http://www.uwe-sieber.de/usbtrouble_e.html

Paul

 

[Gene Wirchenko]

I do not have this problem. I usually only ever use one slot. I
did try the other slot when I was trying to force the problem.

Behavior is dependent on the device having a serial number.

It does have a serial number according to the ListUsbDrives.exe
utility at the site below.

Not all USB devices have serial numbers. When a device doesn't have
a serial number, every time you plug it into a "new" port, it creates
a "new" entry in the registry.

See the section here "USB serial number" for more details.

http://www.uwe-sieber.de/usbtrouble_e.html

I have apparently played by the rules, and it still does not work
quite as it should. The same USB drive occasionally gets a
scan-for-errors prompt when mounted on my Windows 7 system. I do
dislike extraneous prompts.

Could I have a slightly wonky USB drive or port? These problems
are minor, but I do not think that they should be happening. The
drive works fine otherwise (as far as I know, of course).

Sincerely,

Gene Wirchenko

 

[Paul]

I have apparently played by the rules, and it still does not work
quite as it should. The same USB drive occasionally gets a
scan-for-errors prompt when mounted on my Windows 7 system. I do
dislike extraneous prompts.

Could I have a slightly wonky USB drive or port? These problems
are minor, but I do not think that they should be happening. The
drive works fine otherwise (as far as I know, of course).

Sincerely,

Gene Wirchenko

The same website has an answer. (First I tried Googling a bit,
and was getting nowhere, so just for kicks I opened up this bookmark
and searched on "scan", and there is was.)

http://www.uwe-sieber.de/usbtrouble_e.html

"Scan and fix under Vista and Windows 7

When a FAT formatted "removable" USB drive is attached then under
Vista and Win7 the "Scan and Fix" dialog is often shown.

This happens when a certain bit in the drive's boot sector is set.
It is found in a value with the very meaningful name "BS_Reserved1",
see Microsoft's FAT32 File System Specification: fatgen103.doc.

As far as I have discovered, Windows sets the bit whenever a
file size is changed and when a file is created or deleted.

Here is my dirty bit watch tool: WatchFatDirtyBit.zip.

It is set back to 0 about 1.5 Seconds after a file size change
but very long 30 Seconds after a file was deleted or created without
writing data (which does no happen in real live). Having a write cache
active or not seems to have no effect on the dirty bit handling.

So, if you delete a file on a FAT formatted USB drive and remove
it within 30 Seconds then you have set dirty bit. Just always use
"Eject" or the "Safely remove hardware" facility, this flushes all
data and sets the bit back to null."

It's an interesting theory, and something you can test out. I've
*never* had a Scan and Fix on my Windows 7 laptop, and have had a
1GB and 8GB USB key doing file transfers back and forth between
the laptop and my main computer (the one I'm typing on). And I've
had FAT32, FAT16, and NTFS file systems on the sticks. Must
be born lucky, or there is some other contributing factor to this
puzzle. I always use the Safely Remove icon at the
bottom of the screen (or inside the icon storage thing in
Windows 7).

Paul

 

[Gene Wirchenko]

[snip]

It's an interesting theory, and something you can test out. I've
*never* had a Scan and Fix on my Windows 7 laptop, and have had a
1GB and 8GB USB key doing file transfers back and forth between
the laptop and my main computer (the one I'm typing on). And I've
had FAT32, FAT16, and NTFS file systems on the sticks. Must
be born lucky, or there is some other contributing factor to this
puzzle. I always use the Safely Remove icon at the
bottom of the screen (or inside the icon storage thing in
Windows 7).

I would go with the other contributing factor. I am careful
about safely removing. Fortunately, the prompts do not come up that
often. It is just that they do and are clutter.

Sincerely,

Gene Wirchenko