I run into an age old windows problem of locating the right drivers and not necessarily the most recent and here is why. After doing a Bare Metal restore (Thanks Pete for adding to the weekly workload) there were (2), check that, just (2) Exclamation icons showing in Device Manager that System Base Device under "Other" were needed. Or so I thought so I used this really handy sight to track down the missing VEN(dor)xx and DEV(ice) codes right? http://pcidatabase.com/ After installing them all was clear in Device Manager right? This is on Windows 10 BTW. The SD Card Reader worked already as well as both USB ports BEFORE installing the device drivers to clear the notices in Device Manager. But now the system DOES NOT show my External Drive when inserted to either USB Ports. All else, Pen Drives + SD Cards show up as expected but NOT the External Storage Drive. So I was wondering if anyone knows of a simple, good, and freeware Device Detector. The one's AS USUAL that I managed to find and use details missing drivers etc. but I don't need a shareware for something as this. Thanks. Another same old same old courtesy this great O/S and it's elusive divide between the simple and the congested.
You can do it without any extra software by using Device Manager. Double click on a device, go to the Details tab, select Hardware Ids under Property. Then you right click and copy the first Value entry, and then paste it into Google. The only portable software that comes to mind is DriverPack Online, which you can download from the website drp.su. If you select expert mode, you can choose what driver updates and missing drivers you want to install. Also, by default it will want to install some software as well, such as Avast and WinRAR, but you can manually uncheck anything selected to install. There are better options, but they are not portable.
Appreciate that. Finally tracked down the "exact" device driver Setup.exe (Card Reader Broadcom Driver), run it through Sandboxie to get a print of the Registry Hive paths/names etc. just in case the thing won't uninstall normally. Good thing I used a duplicate system because if something doesn't work in one then you can go to the one like it and do a comparison. I get such a headache every time for years tracking down and/or having to troubleshoot Windows drivers issues. But it has gotten a whole lot better then it used to be.
You know I just re read this thread, and if I understand correctly this driver problem came from a bad restore. If I am correct what imaging tool where you using?
LoL Got the ambition to do a Bare Metal with reflect. It's was the usual "user error" and that part was resolved in another post/thread. So no bad restore at all, in fact 100% running perfectly in record time. However just to be sure after checking Device Manager I stumbled on a couple of Exclamations that really doesn't hurt a thing. The correction of installing this particular driver (Broadcom) removed the "System Base Device" missing (2) but in so doing they also removed identifying my External Drive in Windows Explorer etc. No matter, will remove that installation tomorrow and it should solve that odd matter.
Somebody kick me It would be so easy and more fun just to blame Windows 10. OK, after reinstalling the SAME device driver that clears the SYSTEM BASE DEVICE "missing" exclamation in Device Manager the External Hard Drive still wouldn't show in Windows Explorer in WINDOWS 10. This little ordeal sent me on a goose chase for nothing. So here is the remedy. I had searched and read articles with this issue before on other Windows like 7 and 8 but NOT on Windows 10, BUT it obviously still applies. IF IF IF you happen to do a BARE METAL restore (at least with Macrium) and also happen to encounter this problem where all your USB & SD Card Reader Devices work and show up as expected in EXPLORER, "BUT" not your External Hard Drive for whatever reason, MAKE SURE THAT IF IT DOES SHOW UP IN Drive Management ----> Please assign it a Drive Letter
