Vista - Phantom CD Drive

G'Day All,

Since installing Vista HP (about 6 months ago), I have had a 'phantom' CD
drive (always Drive Letter E).

I have so far tolerated it - but not knowing what the h&ll it is is
irritating me!

The FOXCONN Motherboard has an (unused) CD connector, but FOXCONN don't
believe that that is the problem.

Computer has:
2 x HDD, SATA connected
2 x CD/DVD, IDE connected
External 80 GB USB Hard Drive.
Internal USB Multi-Card Reader/USB Port

On boot
C: - SATA HDD
D: - SATS HDD
E :- unknown CD Drive ??????
F: - IDE CD/DVD
G: - IDE CD/DVD
H: - 80GB USB External Drive
I: - Multi-Card Reader
K: - Multi-Card Reader
L: - Multi-Card Reader
M: - Multi-Card Reader
N: - Multi-Card Reader (USB Flash Drive on USB Port)

Drive E: appears in
My Computer/Windows Explorer

Drive E: does NOT APPEAR in
Disk Management (so I cannot change its Drive Letter and letter E is NOT
AVAILABLE), OR
Device Manager (in a way that I can identify)

Does anyone have an idea what this might be?
AND (while I think of it)
Is there some prejudice against drive 'J:' (the letter J is available and I
can force its use, but the Card Reader does not 'naturally' use it)?
--
Regards,
Pat Garard
Melbourne, Australia
_______________________

The C. [MS MVP] wrote:
Extremely unlikely.

Please post a link to your MVP profile.

Malke
--
MS-MVP
Elephant Boy Computers - Don't Panic!
http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/#FAQ

Pat Garard wrote:
When you installed Vista, did you also install the latest drivers for your
motherboard? Flash the BIOS to the latest version? Install software to
create a virtual disk such as Daemon Tools?

Malke
--
MS-MVP
Elephant Boy Computers - Don't Panic!
http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/#FAQ

>When you installed Vista, did you also install the latest drivers for your
motherboard?
YES! FOXCONN provide an auto-update program to do this.YES! As aboveNO!

This occurs during Boot - Drive E has ALWAYS been allocated after C, D (SATA
HDDs)
but before F, G (IDE CD/DVDs).

I am just plain irritated, I guess.
--
Regards,
Pat Garard
Melbourne, Australia
_______________________


"Malke" <malke@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:On2R147pJHA.5100@xxxxxx

Pat Garard wrote:
Look for an option in your BIOS to disable the extra SATA connections and
see what happens. Other than that, I'm sorry but I don't know. Perhaps
Foxconn's tech support will have an answer for you.

Sorry that I was unable to help you.

Malke
--
MS-MVP
Elephant Boy Computers - Don't Panic!
http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/#FAQ

Are you using a U3 flash drive (smart disk)?

unsure it its the case here but ive seen this from pc's & monitors with
built in smart card readers, or have you got a usb flash drive plugged in,
maybe using as ready boost and the rest as extra file storage?

?
"AJR" <ajrjdr@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:e6WnSBbqJHA.3700@xxxxxx

>>>Internal USB Multi-Card Reader/USB Port
See my original post.

However, at one stage I de-installed its driver and physically removed it -
no change
--
Regards,
Pat Garard
Melbourne, Australia
_______________________


"chayi" <chaytorian@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news1D77085-0704-47F4-A2BE-E187530C6891@xxxxxx

I had a problem with a phantom K: drive.
Pat Garard described it perfectly.

The K: drive wasn't displayed in device manager or disk manager, although the letter was reserved in disk manager and I couldn't use it.

Thinking this was a problem with a USB device I uninstalled all these devices, unplugged everything and restarted the computer. The devices were all rediscovered, and the K: drive didn't go away.

I had none of the DVD playing/recording software or other software others have reported causing this sort of issue.
I have a EXT2 file system driver, but that wasn't the reason either.

I think I hit the computer with a hammer exactly twice. The K: drive didn't go away.

I deleted all the entries under HKLM\SYSTEM\MountedDevices and restarted the system. The K: drive was gone. Afterward I had to re-map some USB drives but that was all.

Hope this works for you.

Stephen