Explorer shows nonexistent drive and assigns two letters to same drive

I recently installed software that allowed me to access linux (EXT2) partitions on an external drive (assigned them to P: and V: ). Once I had extracted the files I wanted from those partitions, I uninstalled the software and reformatted the drive to NTFS (assigned to Q: ).

Disk Management shows that drive as only having one partition (74GB, Q: ). However, the other drive letters are still listed in My Computer (and any Explorer dialog). When I try to open V:, it gives a long dialog that starts "V: refers to a location that is unavailable." I would be okay with leaving that one. The REAL problem, in my mind, is P:, which opens the same file system as Q:. I've never had two letters pointing to the same drive before, but I can't imagine it's a very good idea.

Any suggestions on how to remove these drives from Explorer? I am comfortable navigating the registry, if that's what it takes (as long as you're comfortable telling me correctly what needs to be removed/altered in the registry).

Thanks!

 

Yes.

I'm not completely sure what you mean by this. When I right-click I get the usual menu (open, explore, properties, etc.). When I try to "open" or "explore" the orphaned drive ( which is V: ), I get the same error. When I click "properties" it says V is a 0 byte, RAW file system.

However, my biggest problem isn't the one that's "orphaned," but the one that points to another drive ( which is P: ). The problem has even gotten worse now. Drive P: seems to point to whatever USB drive I connect first, along with whatever other drive letter that drive has. This makes me think the problem might be linked to USB (been awhile since I've toyed with this aspect of the system... does USB still map each connection through a COM port or something?). Could it be that the software attached these drives to partitions on whatever USB port is connected first? If so, how do I undo that?

P: also adopts whatever name that volume has been given. In other words, when I connect drive F: first, which is called "SG-500" (500GB seagate), then P: points to that drive and is labeled as "SG-500." But when I connect drive Q: first, which is labeled "backup-80" (80GB backup), P: points to that and is labeled "backup-80." Same for drive H:, "Thumb-1gb." Like I said before, these drives' assigned letters still appear, TOO, pointing to the same volume.

Anyone?

 

Just in case people do better when they visualize things, here are screen shots.

This is My Computer: http://www.winnphillips.com/drive.letters.jpg

Here is what it looks like when I click on "Properties" of drive V:
http://www.winnphillips.com/drive.v.jpg

Here is what Disk Management looks like at that time:
http://www.winnphillips.com/disk.mgmt.jpg

Hope this helps!

 

bump... still not solved.

 

You can try clearing the list of MountedDevices in the registry and see if that helps. It usually does for many issues of this sort, but yours was caused by the Ext2 software, so don't know.

You can only do this as long as you are not using the Microsoft bootmanager and your XP install sees itself as the C: drive and as both the System and Boot partitions. Your Disk Management screenshot clearly shows this to be the case and so you can wipe the list and cause no harm.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices
You can delete everything but the first default entry, or you can delete the entire key as it will be recreated on reboot. All your drive letters will reassigned but you can sort them to what you want in Disk Management if need be.

 

Alright -- I disconnected all external drives, deleted MountedDevices, and rebooted. Without reconnecting anything, this is the list of drives in Explorer:

http://www.winnphillips.com/my.docs.jpg

Note that my two virtual DVD drives (which I use for mounting ISOs) were also not cleared, but they were reassigned new drive letters. P: and V: were not assigned new drive letters.

Does Explorer have its own registry key for organizing drive letters, or is there somewhere in the registry where the contents of "My Computer" are stored, separate from the list of mounted devices?

Thanks for all the help! Please keep it coming!

 

Don't know the answer to your question. The Ext2 software probably created Virtual drives, have a look in Device Manager and see if you can spot non-existent hardware.


Edit: Hi Christer, we must be on the same time clock today, that's the second time you've posted here while I was reading/thinking/writing my post. What's the weather like in Sweden today? It's like summer here in Scotland.

 

I hesitate to make the comment because its a little lame, but can we safely assume that you don't have a card reader wired to the motherboard via USB cables?

 

Hahah... so wait, you're saying the reader I soldered onto my motherboard might be part of the problem?? :-D

That's what my initial thought was, but there aren't any listed in Disk Drives or DVD/CD-ROM Drives (where the other virtual drives are listed), and I nosed around a bit and couldn't find anywhere else with non-existent hardware listed.

I'm considering doing a reformat anyhow -- it's been about a year and a half since the last one, and that always seems to make everything so fresh and new feeling. If this doesn't get solved by the end of the week, that's probably what I'll be doing this weekend.

 

They were originally linked to partitions on an external drive that is not currently connected (and that I have not reconnected since flushing MountedDevices).

 

Last idea - look and see if any drivers have been left behind. http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/serviwin.html


Edit: Lol, it just happened again.
Must be the whisky, I blame most things on the whisky.
Hope you don't drink and pilot.