XP Updates and USB

Hello, All!

This should be a FAQ :-) However, I cannot seem to get any
answers. I had a long phone conversation with a gentleman in
Bangalore employed by Microsoft who honestly tried to help but
without any real answers.

This has happened many times before but this morning, I saw the
"Updates are ready to install" icon and let it go ahead. I
opened the window to observe the process and the first two of
three went without incident. During the third, the monitor
blanked out and the machine rebooted. When I was up and running
again, I checked and the third update was *not* installed and
there was a peculiarly named large file on my USB disc that I
use as a backup device.

The solution, as on previous occasions, was to demount the disc
and re-install. This worked perfectly. The rigmarole is not too
tedious for small sized updates but can waste a lot of time for
larger ones since I usually see the message about updates on
first using the computer when my mental processes are not at
full capacity and often forget to demount the disc.

This has been happening for over a year and communication with
Microsoft has not produced anything useful. Has anyone any
suggestions for fully automating the update process? I would
have thought that I am not the only person with a USB disc. The
invariable result, when a failed update causes a reboot, is that
a large file with a long unintelligible name appears on that
disc. It seems that Microsoft's update installation process
insists on writing temporary files on the last named disc and
then is unable to use them.


--
James Silverton, Potomac, MD.





James Silverton
Potomac, Maryland, USA

James wrote to All on Wed, 13 Jul 2005 10:06:55 -0400:

>>>>Snipping<<<< >>>>
JS> This has happened many times before but this morning,
I saw
JS> the "Updates are ready to install" icon and let it go
JS> ahead. I opened the window to observe the process and the
JS> first two of three went without incident. During the third,
JS> the monitor blanked out and the machine rebooted. When I
JS> was up and running again, I checked and the third update
JS> was *not* installed and there was a peculiarly named large
JS> file on my USB disc that I use as a backup device.

JS> The solution, as on previous occasions, was to demount the
JS> disc and re-install.

>>>>Further snipping<<<<<

It is interesting that there have been no responses to my
original post, not even the conditioned reflex "update your
drivers" :-) The driver, by the way for a "USB mass storage
device" is provided by Microsoft and my system has had all
updates installed. I am really surprised both that I seem to be
the only person who has this problem and also that Microsoft has
not fixed this bug.

James Silverton.