ST-Link V2 -- detected as USB mass storage device

Question

I have a "STM32VLDISCOVERY" board (link) that I connected to my Windows PC.

This board has an integrated "ST-Link V2" programmer / debugger based on the "STM32F103C8" micro controller which actually communicates with the PC. But this micro controller is recognized as a "USB mass storage device". In the "Device manager" it is located under Disk drives/STM32.

If i right click it and follow Properties/Driver/Driver Deatils/ no ST drivers are listed. There are only some Windows default drivers used for this device:

Now I disconnect the board.

As stated in the documentation we have to only install the "ST-Link V2" Windows driver "STSW-LINK009" (link) before we connect board to a PC.

I downloaded the driver, uncompressed it, and ran the stlink_winusb_install.bat script as the administrator. This installs the driver and should enable PC to communicate with "STM32F103C8" as it should.

I connect the board back to the workstation PC but nothing changes. Board is still treated as a "USB mass storage device". In the "Device manager" it is still located under Disk drives/STM32 and Properties/Driver/Driver Deatils/ lists no ST drivers. Again only Windows drivers.

ADD 1:

After the drivers were installed and board connected to the PC (as a "USB mass storage device") I tried to flash the newest firmware to the board by using "STSW-LINK007" board firmware update utility (link) which fails to connect to the board:

How can I overcome this problem?

Answer 1

ST-Link V2-1 implements USB mass storage interface to allow drag-and-drop programming.

If you must disable the mass storage interface, you can do it via the firmware update. From the TN1235 document:

On ST-LINK/V2-1 boards, it is possible to disable and restore the mass storage interface by means of the STLinkUpgrade applications (refer to Figure 1)