I had exactly the same problem (Autoplay kicking in whenever I connected my Firewire drive). This must be a part of "undocumented Windows," because it took me a while to piece together the solution. Here is what worked for me:
* Open your registry by selecting Start, then Run, then entering regedit /v as the command
NOTE: Changing registry values can make your PC unbootable, so be very careful what you change!
* Select the topmost node ("My Computer") in the registry hierarchy.
* Search (ctrl-F) for the following value: NoDriveTypeAutoRun
* Each time you find the NoDriveTypeAutoRun value, note the registry path that leads to it, and its original value. On my PC, the value for these was always 0x91.
* Then, whatever that value is, change it to 0xdd. That should turn off autoplay for everything *but* your CD drives. To turn it off for everything, use 0xff.
* Repeat the above for all remaining occurrences of NoDriveTypeAutoRun throughout your registry. Be sure to note each original value and the path to it, in case you want to restore it later.
* Close the registry and re-boot your PC. These registry values will not take effect until AFTER you have rebooted.
* After rebooting, to test the success of the procedure, try detaching your firewire drive (using the usual safe removal process, of course) and then re-attaching it. Autoplay now should not occur when you re-attach the drive.
Finally if you want to know the meaning of the DD and FF values, or how to disable or enable autoplay for other devices, see the following URL:
http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/Windows/2000/server/reskit/en-us/Default.asp?url=/resources/documentation/Windows/2000/server/reskit/en-us/regentry/91525.asp
That document is for Windows 2000; I could not find a similar document for XP. However, so far as I have tested (which is just turning off my firewire drive), these values work for the NoDriveTypeAutoRun values of the XP registry (although the registry paths are different).
Remember, I have just figured this out on my one machine, and what worked for me may not work for you! So proceed with caution, but this definitely did it for me.
Goalstate
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I had exactly the same problem (Autoplay kicking in whenever I connected my Firewire drive). This must be a part of "undocumented Windows," because it took me a while to piece together the solution. Here is what worked for me:
* Open your registry by selecting Start, then Run, then entering regedit /v as the command
NOTE: Changing registry values can make your PC unbootable, so be very careful what you change!
* Select the topmost node ("My Computer") in the registry hierarchy.
* Search (ctrl-F) for the following value: NoDriveTypeAutoRun
* Each time you find the NoDriveTypeAutoRun value, note the registry path that leads to it, and its original value. On my PC, the value for these was always 0x91.
* Then, whatever that value is, change it to 0xdd. That should turn off autoplay for everything *but* your CD drives. To turn it off for everything, use 0xff.
* Repeat the above for all remaining occurrences of NoDriveTypeAutoRun throughout your registry. Be sure to note each original value and the path to it, in case you want to restore it later.
* Close the registry and re-boot your PC. These registry values will not take effect until AFTER you have rebooted.
* After rebooting, to test the success of the procedure, try detaching your firewire drive (using the usual safe removal process, of course) and then re-attaching it. Autoplay now should not occur when you re-attach the drive.
Finally if you want to know the meaning of the DD and FF values, or how to disable or enable autoplay for other devices, see the following URL:
http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/Windows/2000/server/reskit/en-us/Default.asp?url=/resources/documentation/Windows/2000/server/reskit/en-us/regentry/91525.asp
That document is for Windows 2000; I could not find a similar document for XP. However, so far as I have tested (which is just turning off my firewire drive), these values work for the NoDriveTypeAutoRun values of the XP registry (although the registry paths are different).
Remember, I have just figured this out on my one machine, and what worked for me may not work for you! So proceed with caution, but this definitely did it for me.
Goalstate
---