Lexar Secure Drive Automatically Starting

[hlewton]

Not sure if anyone is familiar with Lexar Secure USB drive or not but essentially it is a jump drive stick that can be partitioned into different drives that require passwords to be accessed. The software for this application is called SecureII and until recently I had to drill down to it on the memory stick and manually start it. For some reason now it is starting automatically when I plug the stick into an USB drive slot on my Windows 7 machine. It still requires a manual start on my XP machine as I still want it to do even on the Win 7 machine. I talked with Lexar support and they had me uncheck the option to “Use AutoPlay for all media and devices” but that did not work.

There can also be a partition that is not secure which is what I use most often and which does not require the secure software to be running. That is the reason I do not want it to start unless I am trying to access the secure partition of the drive, which is not very often.

This SecureII software is not in the root directory of the USB drive; actually it is at least 3 clicks from that. So I have no idea why it would all of a sudden start on its own when the stick is plugged in. Also it makes me doubt that unchecking that option to “Use AutoPlay for all media and devices” would do any good at all.

Any ideas on how to get it to function as it did before when I had to manually drill down to it and start it?

Thanks

[HansV]

Does the root of the drive contain a file named Autorun.inf? If so, you could delete this file.

[hlewton]

It did. I deleted it but it still starts the software. Thanks.

I should correct this. One drive did have that autorun.inf file the other did not but they both still start the SecureII software when the device is plugged in to an USB slot.

[Rudi]

I don't know much about these things in Windows, but hopefully any suggestions could be useful :)

Does it start automatically when you plug it into other PC's?
If not, it seems then to be a local process running in the background on this one PC, or maybe the software has created a task in the scheduler that triggers it to start with the USB insert.

[hlewton]

No it does not start automatically on my other PCs which are running XP or XPP.

I think you may have hit the nail on the head. After reading your post I found a process called Lxrautorun.exe listed. I searched the Internet and found it is connected to the drives in question and that, like with me, it only started recently after a recent Windows Update which I recently did a few days ago. I was, as suggested in the links I found, able to disable it in the WhatInStartUp program so when I next reboot I'll see if that makes a difference. Thanks for the help.

Sorry again I didn't complete what I wanted to say. I stopped the processes for it in the task manager and then reinserted the drives and they worked perfectly but again it will take a reboot to see if disabling that task in the WhatInStartUp program works.

[hlewton]

First let me say that after stopping Lxrautorun.exe and rebooting the jump stick did work as it used to. However there is still a running process I am concerned about. So here goes.

I have a few questions here and a lot of confusion on my part so any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

When checking the Task Manager is shows that there is a process running called LxrSII1s.exe but it calls it LxrSII1s.exe *32 which is one of the confusing things because I have no idea what the *32 means. I searched the Internet and again it said that this process is “The process known as Secure II Service or Lexar Secure II belongs to software Lexar Secure II or Secure II by Lexar Media (http://www.lexar.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;)” and that it is located in C:\Windows\System32 folder. First off it is not in that folder. Using windows useless search I tried finding it and came up empty. I then tried searching for it using a program called Locate32 which I thought was a fairly good program but it too did not find it.

The Internet says I can use the Control Panel’s Add/Remove programs to get rid of this process by removing the program causing it to start but there is no program there that causes this process to start so I searched the Registry. I found LxrSII1s.exe in a Registry key named HKLM-System-ControlSet001-Service-LxrsII1s. In this key under the Name heading was InfoPath, under the Type heading was Reg_Expand_Sz, under the Data heading was C:\Windows\System32\ LxrSII1s.exe but I already mentioned it is not in that folder. I have no idea if this process can be started from this Registry key or not so does anyone know the answer to that? Also do you suppose this key can be safely deleted?

Further search on the Internet said this LxrSII1s.exe file could possibly be located in the C:\Windows\SysWOW64 folder and that is where I found it. I have no idea why neither of the searches I did on my computer came up empty especially the one using Locate32. Is there a better search program I should be using to find files like this one?

Also any ideas why it would be in the C:\Windows\SysWOW64 folder instead of the C:\Windows\System32 as most Internet searches say it is and also the search of the Registry say that it is there too.

So to summarize I guess my questions are:
1. Could the Registry key I found LxrSII1s.exe in cause the process to be running?
2. Can I safely delete that Registry key?
3. Why is LxrSII1s.exe in a different folder than it is supposed to be? Is it because this computer is a 64 bit OS? If that is the case why does the search of the Registry also say it should be in C:\Windows\system32 folder, as mentioned above?
4. Is there a better and more reliable search program available for Win 7 than the Locate32 I am using at present?

Thanks

[HansV]

I can only answer #3.

You have 64-bit Windows, and LxrSII1s.exe is a 32-bit program. For historical reasons, 64-bit Windows stores 'native', i.e. 64-bit drivers in the System32 folder, and 'legacy' 32-bit drivers in the SysWOW64 folder (sounds confusing, doesn't it?)

Lexar probably didn't take 64-bit Windows into account, and placed a reference to LxrSII1s.exe in the folder where it would have been on a 32-bit system: System32. Windows redirects all calls to 32-bit drivers fully automatically and transparently from System32 to SysWOW64, so that applications that aren't 64-bit aware can operate as they should.
In the Processes tab of Task Manager, 32-bit processes are distinguished from 64-bit processes by placing *32 after their name.

If you disable this driver, you may not be able to use the password-protected partitions on the USB drive any more, so I'd let this process run.

[hlewton]

I think you may be right about leaving it alone. Thanks for the other information as well and yes it does sound confusing. I hope someone has a suggestion for a search program that works because the ones I have sure don't seem to be doing the job.

[Rudi]

I can answer #4 by suggesting that you use a free program called: Everything

I swear by it as I use it numerous times everyday (in my job scenario)...
As the name suggests, it lists ALL files on your PC and provides a lightning fast list of files based on conditions or files names you provide as criteria.

[hlewton]

Thank you Rudi I will definitely look into that link.

[hlewton]

I can only answer #3.

OK Hans I have to ask this. Last night when I read this post I was not on a computer where I got an email notification of it. I viewed it on an iPad and when I read it I saw you said you could only answer #3. Today when I read the email notification on my computer it said you could only answer #4. I know many strange things are happening to me since buying this Win 7 machine but just for my own curiosity I am wondering if by chance I could have received that email and after getting it you may have edited it to read #3 instead of #4. Otherwise this is yet another strange thing happening to me. Thanks.

[hlewton]

I can answer #4 by suggesting that you use a free program called: Everything

I swear by it as I use it numerous times everyday (in my job scenario)...
As the name suggests, it lists ALL files on your PC and provides a lightning fast list of files based on conditions or files names you provide as criteria.

Yep that found it where the others failed. I must say it found it almost instantaneously too. Thanks again.

[Rudi]

Excellent

[HansV]

OK Hans I have to ask this. Last night when I read this post I was not on a computer where I got an email notification of it. I viewed it on an iPad and when I read it I saw you said you could only answer #3. Today when I read the email notification on my computer it said you could only answer #4. I know many strange things are happening to me since buying this Win 7 machine but just for my own curiosity I am wondering if by chance I could have received that email and after getting it you may have edited it to read #3 instead of #4. Otherwise this is yet another strange thing happening to me. Thanks.

That's my fault. I originally wrote - mistakenly - #4. Immediately after posting, I noticed my error and edited my reply to mention #3 instead of #4. The e-mail notification was sent when I first posted the reply; you don't get notifications of edits to a post or reply.

[hlewton]

Thanks Hans, I kind of thought and certainly was hoping that was the case.

[hlewton]

The LxrAutorun.exe file I found in the following folder C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Lexar Media. When I try to drill down to it I get to the Username folder and it has a lock on it. I do not see the AppData folder at all. Does this lock on the Username folder keep me from seeing it and if so how do I get past this.

Thanks

[HansV]

The AppData folder is hidden.

In Windows Explorer, click Organize, then Folder and Search Options.
Activate the View tab.
Under Advanced settings, tick the "Show hidden files, folders, and drives" check box.
Click OK.

You should now be able to see the subfolders of C:\Users\<username>.

[hlewton]

Worked great, thank you.