windows showing nonexistent drive

i just reinstalled windows, and had trouble with it recognizing my CD/DVD-ROM drive. i fixed it using the following microsoft guide (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/320553/en-us), but now the computer is saying there's an additional removable disk that doesn't actually exist. how do i get rid of it?

thanks

 

Start, Run, devmgmt.msc
Expand the CD Rom section.
Disable the device.

Note: many, many CD utility software install a 'Virtual' CD ROM device, and I suspect that is what you are seeing.

You can uninstall, but the way to do so varies by software program used.

 

do you mean uninstall the working CD-ROM drive? when i ran devmgmt.msc like you said, it only showed the hardware that is installed. i've been using the same CD drive for more than two years and it never showed a "virtual" device before.

 

Do you happen to have a printer that has flash card slots? My HP printer does and I have a removable disk listed on my system.

 

kaosgds--I doubt Bill Castner was suggesting removing a real and functioning device. In Device Manager, right click|Properties on the device you suspect and see what information you get from the various tabs, especially the General tab, which should indicate Device type and Manufacturer. If no such info is given and "Device is working properly" is not shown, that would seem to be the one to uninstall. But if you cannot find it, and your PC is working OK, maybe just leave things alone.

 

I never intended you to touch the settings for your physical CD Rom drive.

In addition to hiding non–Plug and Play devices, Device Manager also hides phantom devices. These are devices which are not currently attached to the computer. We need to see if Device Manager is hiding these mysterious new CD Rom device:

Start, Run, CMD

1. At the command prompt, type:
set DEVMGR_SHOW_NONPRESENT_DEVICES=1

2. Type: start devmgmt.msc

• In Device Manager, click the View menu, and then select Show hidden devices .

Expand the CD ROM section, the USB Controller section, the Unknown Devices section, .etc to see if you can find the mysterious device. If so, right-click and disable it. (Disable is completely different from uninstalling or removing the device entry).

Note: many, many CD utility software install a 'Virtual' CD ROM device, and I suspect that is what you are seeing. Alcohol, Nero, and many others will create such a 'virtual' device. It is best if you want to remove the device to use the CD burning software that installed it to do so.

 

I too have hp printer with usb slot for camera. This shows as a removable drive. Confirmed by double clicking on the "My Computer" desktop icon and right clicking on the drive in question and selecting "properties ">hardware tab. On this tab the names given on the storage devices list explains that the drive is HP Photosmart usb yada yada. Perhaps yours will be named with something explaining its self in a bit more detail.

 

thanks everyone for all your suggestions! i actually DO have an HP printer with a flash card slot, but it had never shown a removable disk before either. additionally, the ONLY place it was being shown was in my computer. none of the hardware utilities was recognizing it.

if it was hiding phantom devices before yesterday, it must have started again, because the extra drive wasn't showing up anymore in windows explorer when i started my computer this morning.

have a great day
deanna