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How do I mount the internal/media storage in Windows?

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Note: I have the Electrify, the 3G version of the Photon. Same thing minus 4G. I know there's an Electrify forum, but this one is more active.

When I first got my phone, connecting it to the PC and setting "USB Mass Storage" caused two drives to pop up: MOT (mnt\sdcard) and my microSD card (mnt\sdcard-ext). It's done that for a while, but lately, it's only mounted the microSD card.

How can I mount the internal storage as a drive in Windows?
 
Dark Reality said:
Note: I have the Electrify, the 3G version of the Photon. Same thing minus 4G. I know there's an Electrify forum, but this one is more active.

When I first got my phone, connecting it to the PC and setting "USB Mass Storage" caused two drives to pop up: MOT (mnt\sdcard) and my microSD card (mnt\sdcard-ext). It's done that for a while, but lately, it's only mounted the microSD card.

How can I mount the internal storage as a drive in Windows?
Click to expand...

That's a quirk I've noticed as well. What you I've done is, whenever I needed to see the internal storage, I just make sure I get 2 prompts and hit "view folder" before it disappears. That's the only way i've managed to get it to stay. Otherwise, the internal storage doesn't stay visible if you don't open it once the prompt comes up.
 
I'm using Windows 7. I don't get the autorun or autoplay prompts you get in XP. I have to go into Computer. Before it mounted two drives (sdcard and sdcard-ext) now it just mounts sdcard-ext.
 
Dark Reality said:
I'm using Windows 7. I don't get the autorun or autoplay prompts you get in XP. I have to go into Computer. Before it mounted two drives (sdcard and sdcard-ext) now it just mounts sdcard-ext.
Click to expand...

Oh, I see. I'm actually using Vista, so didn't realize Windows 7 doesn't do that.

I tried this out yesterday and got the same issue where the internal SD wasn't showing. I've never really figured out how to make it show all the time.

Only thing I can think of is, in the settings, you can switch which storage area shows between internal and external sd.
 
Weird. I thought Vista lost autoplay/autorun. XP got the update and 7 came like that. Actually I don't know how Vista was handled. Badly I imagine. No offense but I hate Vista. LOL. Anyway, all this was due to the flash drive scare. Now only read-only media (optical discs, but also those stupid U3 flash drives with their virtual CD partition) get to have autorun. Cool that you still got it though.
 
Dark Reality said:
Weird. I thought Vista lost autoplay/autorun. XP got the update and 7 came like that. Actually I don't know how Vista was handled. Badly I imagine. No offense but I hate Vista. LOL. Anyway, all this was due to the flash drive scare. Now only read-only media (optical discs, but also those stupid U3 flash drives with their virtual CD partition) get to have autorun. Cool that you still got it though.
Click to expand...

Yeah, autoplay/autorun still works on mine every time. Don't worry...LOL...don't need to remind me how bad Vista is and I'm not offended at all. I didn't mind it before (and didn't think it was as bad as reports said), but when I got a PC with Windows 7, I've been waiting for the moment prices drop on Windows 7 upgrades, just so I can change my 2 laptops to Windows 7. The only hesitation I have is that there are some downloaded software programs I use on my laptop right now, that I can't find the product key for and I use constantly.

Nontheless, getting back to the subject at hand, I'm thinking that Windows Sync setting in the SD card settings, on the phone, is the one that'll allow the internal card to show. That's the only other setting I can think of that might be the solution (or might not). I wish it would just show up, without having to use autorun everytime, but hopefully there is another solution out there.

Have you had a chat with Motorola support, to see if they can explain how to get both to show up automatically?
 
No, I haven't dealt with Motorola.

Windows Media Sync isn't it. That just mounts it as, I think, MTP? Lets you sync media to it.
 
Works fine for me. I plug the phone into the computer via USB, drag down the notification bar and click on USB connect options, then choose USB Mass Storage.

On the computer, opening a file manager window (Windows Explorer) then shows two new drives under My Computer (E: and H:, in my case).
 
jeffdlb said:
Works fine for me. I plug the phone into the computer via USB, drag down the notification bar and click on USB connect options, then choose USB Mass Storage.

On the computer, opening a file manager window (Windows Explorer) then shows two new drives under My Computer (E: and H:, in my case).
Click to expand...

Were you able to click on them and actually see the files?

The issue isn't that they show up on Windows Explorer, it's that the files aren't accessible on the internal storage.
 
I am using Windows 7 and have always gotten notifications for two new drives. One for the internal storage and the other for the mounted card. And neither "pop up" message disappears unless I close it out.

And yes I can read from them [EDIT: and write to them, from the computer].

FWIW, I have never set a default action for what Windows to do when the notifications pop up.
 
drexappeal said:
Were you able to click on them and actually see the files?

The issue isn't that they show up on Windows Explorer, it's that the files aren't accessible on the internal storage.
Click to expand...
On the phone, neither the internal drive nor the mounted SD card show up; that's the way it is supposed to be when you mount the phone as Mass Storage.

I guess that is so you can manipulate the drive contents while hooked up in that mode.
 
joephoton said:
On the phone, neither the internal drive nor the mounted SD card show up; that's the way it is supposed to be when you mount the phone as Mass Storage.

I guess that is so you can manipulate the drive contents while hooked up in that mode.
Click to expand...

I don't think you read very carefully through the entire discussion

1) There was never a question about seeing the files/folders on the phone while connected

2) The issue is that, some (including myself) have experienced situations where somehow, the internal storage is not accessible (when viewing through windows explorer On The PC)...And, what I have noticed is that it only is accessible when auto run pops up. This is while USB drive is selected on the phone. For me, the drive always shows, but the files/folders for the internal storage don't show unless I open thru auto-run when it first pops up.
 
My unmuddled reply is this:

I just attached my Photon to my laptop running Windows 7, as mass storage. I waited till both auto run menus popped up. Then I immediately closed both of them.

Then I went to Windows Explorer and was able both to view and manipulate the files and folders.

Sent from my MB855
 
joephoton said:
My unmuddled reply is this:

I just attached my Photon to my laptop running Windows 7, as mass storage. I waited till both auto run menus popped up. Then I immediately closed both of them.

Then I went to Windows Explorer and was able both to view and manipulate the files and folders.

Sent from my MB855
Click to expand...

Okay...thanks for clarifying. And yes, that's how mine used to be, where when connecting as a USB drive, the auto-run pop-ups would come up and I wouldn't need to open them in order to see the internal drive. I don't know what changed in between that time and now, but I am not able to access the internal drive viewing on Windows Explorer, unless I open it first with the auto-run pop-up.

The question at hand for this thread is that the OP is not able to access the itnernal storage at all, when connecting via USB drive (e.g. it isn't accessible on windows explorer) and from what I understood, he never has gotten an auto-run pop-up either.

Seems like an inconsistent issue with different phones and not sure if there's a solution (aside from maybe a hard reset).
 
Internal storage came back last night, and I have no idea why. I just connected, went to put the next episodes for the show I'm watching on, and noticed internal storage was there. It was great because Windows Media Player hates me and won't add more than a dozen or so albums to my library, so I was able to add more. Wish I would have had the time to add all the music I wanted.
 
It's possible that Windows was trying to assign the same drive letter to both volumes. This has been a here-today-gone-tomorrow kind of bug that has been around since the days of XP and has still never really gotten fixed.

Assuming that the phone itself is not the problem, try this the next time it happens:

1. Click Start -> right-click (My) Computer -> Manage.
2. On the left-hand pane, expand the Storage tree and click Disk Management.
3. While the (My) Computer window only shows those volumes that have drive letters, Disk Management shows ALL volumes connected to the computer, even those that don't have drive letters. In the bottom section of the screen, you will see a list of disks (left column) and the volumes on those disks (right column). Look for a volume that's about 16GB in size; it will either have no drive letter next to it or it may have the same drive letter as another drive. Right-click the volume and click Change Drive Letter and Paths.
4. Click Change, then open the drop-down menu and choose a drive letter you know is not being used (such as Z).
5. Click OK, click Yes on the warning message that pops up, and click OK one more time.

The new drive should show up in (My) Computer and you might even get an AutoPlay popup for it. This procedure works on XP, Vista, and 7.
 
Heh. That actually makes sense. The internal memory partition is only 8.92GB, but I will try that. (It is 16GB but only one ~9GB partition is presented to Windows.)

I wonder, if I took the microSD card out and mounted as USB mass storage, that should work too. It's just a PITA to get the back cover off and then get the microSD card out. (Would it hurt my phone to break that m*****f***ing black tab off? It would feel great! Haha.)
 
paradox183 said:
It's possible that Windows was trying to assign the same drive letter to both volumes. This has been a here-today-gone-tomorrow kind of bug that has been around since the days of XP and has still never really gotten fixed.

Assuming that the phone itself is not the problem, try this the next time it happens:

1. Click Start -> right-click (My) Computer -> Manage.
2. On the left-hand pane, expand the Storage tree and click Disk Management.
3. While the (My) Computer window only shows those volumes that have drive letters, Disk Management shows ALL volumes connected to the computer, even those that don't have drive letters. In the bottom section of the screen, you will see a list of disks (left column) and the volumes on those disks (right column). Look for a volume that's about 16GB in size; it will either have no drive letter next to it or it may have the same drive letter as another drive. Right-click the volume and click Change Drive Letter and Paths.
4. Click Change, then open the drop-down menu and choose a drive letter you know is not being used (such as Z).
5. Click OK, click Yes on the warning message that pops up, and click OK one more time.

The new drive should show up in (My) Computer and you might even get an AutoPlay popup for it. This procedure works on XP, Vista, and 7.
Click to expand...

Tried this procedure tonight while formatting the 64gb microSD. Internal storage still didn't show up.
 
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