after some hacking around here's what i found:
there is an installed driver: broadcom netlink gigabit ethernet
when this is enabled, it seems the laptop doesn't recognize any usb drives ( at least not with data; my usb speakers and wireless mouse/keyboard work ). i disabled it, and mounted the droid, and was able to get the folders to pop up.
now i just need to figure out what this broadcom thing does exactly. everything seems to function fine when it's disabled.
there is an installed driver: broadcom netlink gigabit ethernet
when this is enabled, it seems the laptop doesn't recognize any usb drives ( at least not with data; my usb speakers and wireless mouse/keyboard work ). i disabled it, and mounted the droid, and was able to get the folders to pop up.
now i just need to figure out what this broadcom thing does exactly. everything seems to function fine when it's disabled.