Have you ever experienced this problem: When you plug in a new USB device such as mouse, external hard drive or digital camera, the new hardware is detected but automatic driver installation fails every time with a ‘data invalid’ error message? Don’t worry, there are several possible solutions that you can test.

Solution 1: Use the advanced installation option and manually select the Windows folder which holds the drivers. The location is C:\Windows\inf (keep in mind that this folder may be hidden. To unhide the folder, open Windows Explorer, click on Tools, Folder Options, View and select the ’show hidden files and folders‘ option). If you have the CD with the drivers, try to find and select the folder that contains the driver files.

Solution 2: Go to C:\Windows\Driver Cache\i386 and find SP2.cab. Right click on this file and select explore. Next, find usbstor.sys, right click on it and extract to desktop. Insert the USB device and try to install again (use automatic installation option).

Solution 3: Restore USB related inf files from the Windows XP CD. Copy the USB.inf file from X:\i386\files to C:\Windows\inf where X is the drive letter of your CD/DVD drive. To copy the file, insert the Windows XP CD and open the Command Prompt (Start, Run, type cmd). Write the following line:

copy usb.inf X:\i386\files C:\Windows\inf

and press Enter. (If your CD/DVD drive has a letter D:, substitute D for X). If this doesn’t work, also try to copy usbstor.inf:

copy usbstor.inf X:\i386\files C:\Windows\inf

After you finish copying the files, try to install the USB device again.

To view more solutions, please visit the RunPCrun blog.