Scott Larson Consulting

when you boot your computer, you might notice that one of your devices no longer exisist. Going into the device manager shows an error with the driver of that device. Error code 10 or 28.

Warning! It can be dangerous to data if your problem device happeneds to be and external harddrive. You should disconnect the device before attempting any of this.

If its an external device the first thing you might want to try is power cycling the device itself (turn off or unplug the device and reconnect it) If that does not solve your problem continue:

If Code 10 appears, the device has most probably failed and will need to be replaced

If Code 28 appears, you will need to test the device on another computer. If the device works fine on another computer, there are a few steps to follow:

1. Open a Windows Explorer window (right-click on Start > Explore).
2. In the address bar, type c:\windows\inf and press Enter.
3. Right-click on the file INFCACHE.1.
4. Select Properties.
5. Click on the "Security" tab.
6. Click "Edit" to edit permissions.
7. Click "Add" to add Group or User name.
8. Delete the file.
9. Reboot and the file should be rebuilt, correcting the problem.
10. If that fails, you will need to try to reload the USB drivers for the operating system by inserting your Windows install CD, rebooting, and attempting a Repair/Restore.

Warning! It can be dangerous to data if your problem device happeneds to be and external harddrive. You should disconnect the device before attempting any of this.