How to Find a Compact Flash Drive on a Vista Computer

Compact flash drives offer additional data storage.

Microsoft Windows Vista includes a plug-and-play feature that enables the operating system to automatically find new hardware, such as compact flash drives, when they are connected to the computer. However, if computer resources such as CPU and memory are low or unavailable, plug-and-play may fail. If this is the case, use Windows Explorer or the Disk Management utility in Windows Vista to find a compact flash drive.

Instructions

Using Windows Explorer

1. Click the "Start" button on the Windows Vista taskbar.

2. Click the "Computer" icon in the menu that appears.

3. Plug the compact flash drive into the Windows Vista computer. If the compact flash drive icon does not appear, press the "F5" key on the keyboard to refresh the view in the "Computer" window.

Using the Disk Management Utility

1. Log in to the computer using the username and password of an account that has Administrator permissions on the computer.

2. Click the "Start" button on the Windows Vista taskbar and click the "Search" box. Type "diskmgmt.msc" in the search box and click the "Enter" key. The "Disk Management" window appears.

3. Plug the compact flash drive into the compact flash drive slot on the Windows Vista computer. Click the "Action" menu near the top of the "Disk Management" window and click "Rescan Disks" in the menu that appears.

4. Locate the drive that has been added to the list of drives displayed in the "Disk Management" window. The newly displayed drive is the compact flash drive.

References

• IT Professionals; Basic And Dynamic Disks in Vista (Part IV); Diana Huggins; Apr. 23, 2007
• Microsoft Windows: Working with Digital Pictures