I've just got my laptop back from having been cleaned of a nasty virus (thanks DHL!)
When I use Windows Explorer and connect a data pen or some other USB drive Windows "churps!" and states it's found the device but it's not showing on Explorer as a Drive letter, hence, I can't see or use the device.
My question is – has something been turned off or is there a quick fix?

Everything else about the laptop is fine.
Many thanks as always T

Any ideas?

It could be that you need to manually assign the USB a drive letter. Sometimes happen if there is a conflict with another drive.
In XP go to Administrative tools in control panel, then open up "Computer Management". you should have a tree structure on the right. Towards the bottom under storage you should have disk Management. Click on this and this will show all the disks connected. Have a look for your USB stick. If its there with no drive letter assigned right click on it and choose "Change drive letter and paths". Just manually choose a letter that isn't used. It should now show in My Computer.

If it isn;t you might want to check that the USB ports are working. If it's recently been rebuilt then it might be missing the USB drivers. Check the device manager under the hardware tab in system properties found in the control pannel.

Hope this helps

Regards
Dave

What Windydave said.

Windows try to assign the F letter to a removable drive. If that is taken by another drive then they are not smart enough to assign the next letter or the first available letter. So they see the drive but you have to manually give it a letter… Honestly it amazes me some times how MS can get away with such stupidity and shortsightedness.

Vista and Win 7 do not have this issue.

Many thanks chaps I'll give it a go!