Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2022 February 5

= February 5 =

External drive problems
I have a lot of files, so I keep them on a series of Seagate external USB drives. One for music, one for mods and saved games, one for movies, etc. They were all working fine until recently. Now, they don't seem to load properly. If I've restarted the computer, one will load, but no others will. And, if I eject the working one and try to connect it again, it won't. If I restart, I similarly get one shot to connect. AFAICT, the drives are just fine and connect with no problem on other computers. As far as Windows Explorer is concerned, the drives are not there at all, but they do show up in the device manager, which gives me this message: "Windows cannot load the device driver for this hardware because a previous instance of the device driver is still in memory. (Code 38) The driver could not be loaded because a previous version of the driver is still in memory." In searching online for that error, it was suggested that I uninstall the driver and then allow Windows update to take care of it, so I did that, and Windows did seem to find and install optional updates, but now after all the restarting is done, the same problem is still here. I entered some S/N - P/N on the Seagate website, but there was no driver showing as required for Windows; the only options are for dashboards and other programs for managing backups, which I don't want/need. What else can I try? Matt Deres (talk) 20:31, 5 February 2022 (UTC)


 * This query found a solution called USB Oblivion. It claims to wipe all traces of previously USB connected devices from the registry (not the hubs/ports themselves, I think), especially after an ignored restart, etc.
 * Otherwise, basic troubleshooting: Which version of Windows are you using? Do you remember what you were doing before this problem manifested itself? Assuming (hah!) you haven't made any other major changes to your system, have you tried a System Restore from before the problem started? Have you tried attaching the external drives to another PC, eg belonging to a friend, relative? The drives ought to show up immediately, just to make sure they are working in their own right. NB Be *most* careful with external disks when they are plugged into the casing, they are incredibly easy to bash around, I lost several that way... MinorProphet (talk) 07:53, 10 February 2022 (UTC)


 * Thank you for that - I hadn't found that in my searches. I'll give it a shot when I back at home. FWIW, I'm on an up-to-date Windows 10 box and the drives all work fine on my laptop, etc. I tend to baby my electronics. I haven't installed or made any changes to the computer myself in some time, though there have been the usual mass of Windows updates. Matt Deres (talk) 16:26, 10 February 2022 (UTC)


 * FYI, it seems to have worked - thanks again! Matt Deres (talk) 04:06, 11 February 2022 (UTC)


 * Hurrah twice! Once because it worked, and twice because you said thank you. Have an extra hurrah anyway. Hurrah thrice! MinorProphet (talk) 18:03, 11 February 2022 (UTC)


 * You'll have to rescind one of the hurrahs then because it's stopped working again. :-( Matt Deres (talk) 02:49, 12 February 2022 (UTC)

How does ASP.NET MVC HttpContext work?
How does the HttpContext in ASP.NET MVC work? How is it implemented? When I set some item in the HttpContext of an HTTP response, and the user then makes another request, I get the same item in the request's HttpContext. Where is it stored? Is it in the browser's cookies? Or does the ASP.NET MVC framework keep some sort of internal dictionary, with an index key coming from the HTTP request? J I P &#124; Talk 22:03, 5 February 2022 (UTC)