conflicts when switching usb ports

[bongoman31]

I've had this issue on both XP and now Vista. For ripping, burning, etc. I use two external hard-drives and an external burner; all connected by USB. I also use several thumb drives.So I'm constantly switching around, using this hard-drive over that one, disconnecting to move my laptop back & forth from work/home, etc. With Xp i got a lot of errors relative to the hard-drive "Failed to write data" and some google searches revealed some prevalence of this problem, but not much toward solution. I thought Vista may have solved it, but apparently all the work that went into Vista was mysterious, because I'm not seeing much improvement on that issue or much else, but I digress. With Vista it's more subtle, and not as often, but lately it won't recognize this drive or that, at random times. When I reboot, it's usually ok, but what a pain! Is anyone else seeing these issues? because a web search of this toward Vista doesn't reveal much.
Thx

[Sharktooth]

you must "release" (or unmount...) the device BEFORE physically disconnecting it.
look in the system tray for a usb-like icon with a green check (in vista) or a drive icon with a green arrow (in XP)... click on the icon and BEFORE you physically unplug the device, deactivate (unmount/release/whatever) it thru that icon.

[Ghitulescu]

I've had this issue on both XP and now Vista. For ripping, burning, etc. I use two external hard-drives and an external burner; all connected by USB. I also use several thumb drives.So I'm constantly switching around, using this hard-drive over that one, disconnecting to move my laptop back & forth from work/home, etc. With Xp i got a lot of errors relative to the hard-drive "Failed to write data" and some google searches revealed some prevalence of this problem, but not much toward solution. I thought Vista may have solved it, but apparently all the work that went into Vista was mysterious, because I'm not seeing much improvement on that issue or much else, but I digress. With Vista it's more subtle, and not as often, but lately it won't recognize this drive or that, at random times. When I reboot, it's usually ok, but what a pain! Is anyone else seeing these issues? because a web search of this toward Vista doesn't reveal much.
Thx

I never had this issue in XP but in 2000, only with HDDs, not with SD, CF, xD or any other "static" (non-rotating ;)) mass storage.

You should also bear in mind that each USB device should have a serial that, now here's one of the biggest problems, due to a vague statement in USB standard, some hardware manufactures interpret it as unique to device while others as unique to device class. If you have two USB sticks from the same Chinese manufacturer chances are that they share the same "unique" serial and bring problems. Try to deactivate the serial check - google.com.

[bongoman31]

Thanks all... Sharktooth, or anyone else that may know, how do you assign a letter, i.e. Z to a drive in Vista? It seems to conflict around letters H-G where both devices have their "identities" set at that letter. I had done it in XP, but not Vista, yet.
Thanks
BM