USB to Serial-ATA bridge driver not found

[ScottHW]

I am running Vista Ultimate 64 bit. I have several SATA II external drives I
use to plug into a USB port. Most of these work fine, but two of them cause
Windows to search for a "USB to Serial-ATA bridge driver", it fails to find
one and prompts for an install disk, which I don't have. If I plug these
same drives into XP it promptly says it found an "USB to Serial-ATA" device
and mounts the drive - no problem.

Any idea why this is happening ?

Thanks,
Scott

[Mickey Lane]

Well, the short answer is XP has the drivers (either 'in the box' or due to
some previous install you did) and Vista doesn't.

Can you identify something about the drives that don't work (manufacturer,
etc) that is different from the ones that do work?

Is it possible that the manufacturer has some Vista drivers? Check the web
site maybe?

[ScottHW]

Well, yes, of course XP has the driver, just really puzzles me that Vista
doesn't and further can't even find it. Maybe its just a 64 bit support
thing - no big surprise. I tried pointing to the System32 folder, then it
ends with something like "Windows found the driver but encountered an error -
file not found". Huh ?

Of the 2 drives that I have seen this with, one is in a safe deposit box so
can't check it. However, the other is the only Western Digital (its a Caviar
SE16 type) in the bunch I have here, model WD5000AAKS - 22TMAO, date of
manufacture July 30, 2007. It was on sale for $99, and since I bought it
have noticed this thing selling all over the net for that same $99 price tag.
Probably some really old firmware level they want to dump. <sigh>. As
for a driver or firmware update from WD, no go, nothing on the site.