# Problems with Phantom Drive Letters



## Rainking (May 13, 2006)

Hello all. I'm running WinXP Pro with all current updates. I've noticed that suddenly my computer will assign my USB drive a different letter each time I connect it, and I cannot reassign previous drive letters to it. For years I've had it set up to be one drive letter (F), and it would always connect to that letter (A-E naturally taken up by internal drives).

I've done some investigating and printscreened my findings along the way. I hope it will help you see my problem better (I've connected and disconnected the drive several times along the way starting with F, last letter used is J).

First off, I tried going into Computer Management to change it back to F, but it would not list F as an available letter (see first attachment).

I then noticed that using Open or Save As in any program would show previously assigned letters as "Local Disk" (see second attachment with device connected and third attachment with device disconnected). Note that nothing shows up for these letters under My Computer (fourth attachment).

If, in Open or Save As, I click on one of these 'phantom' drives, it produces an error (see fifth attachment).

So there you have it. Please help!


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## Rainking (May 13, 2006)

bump.


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## JohnWill (Oct 19, 2002)

You're the second person to run across this recently, and so far I haven't found out anything that would cause this. I'm still checking around for a solution...


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## Rainking (May 13, 2006)

Funny, I don't have or have ever heard of Alcohol 120%. And it's not with CDs but with a USB drive. The only thing that I can think of that I did when this started happening is back when I installed some Windows XP Pro updates a couple of weeks ago (the latest ones at the time). Maybe I'll uninstall them and see if that's what is causing the issue.


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## Bob Cerelli (Nov 3, 2002)

What do you see listed under Disk Management as far as drives go.


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## Rockn (Jul 29, 2001)

Try going into Computer Mangement > Removeable Storage > Physical Locations and remove any drives listed that do not belong there or that have duplicate entries. I have a few entries that are still in there from an old IDE CD-ROM


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## JohnWill (Oct 19, 2002)

Lexon123, you have your own thread here, I've split you off from this one. You need to stop hijacking other folks threads. Continue with your problem here. http://forums.techguy.org/hardware/467582-phantom-drive-letters.html


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## qldit (Mar 18, 2005)

Good Morning Gentlemen, Phantom drives are a damned nuisance, the Atapi driver used to do it with different CDROMs in the early days. 
As you would be aware it scans for devices and can cover numerous repetitions.

So Rainking, I suspect a similar problem is happening here, (guessing actually) and there was a recent MS update that was reported as possibly causing "looping" with some drivers which seems suspiciously in the same kind of area as your problem.

I believe the easy fix was simply to enter a folder and rename Verclsid.exe to Verclsid.old
but I notice it is mentioned currently in the first sticky on this site hidden in a lot of wording under different non-associated things. 
You will probably have a brain haemhorrage reading that MS stuff.

Googling Verclsid.exe will probably tell you more.

This entire idea is only a guess that it may be involved, so please treat me gently with any replies.
(Personally I can't understand why Linux isn't the preferred operating system)LOL!
Cheers, qldit.


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## Rainking (May 13, 2006)

Well, tried the various suggestions, but nothing. I uninstalled all the WinXP updates I could find in Add/Remove programs up to the beginning of this month (when it started happening), but it still persists.

Two new things I discovered. Restarting the computer eliminates those phantom "Local Disk" entries. And if I reassign the drive letter, then there are duplicate entries of the drive in the Open and Save As dialogs, one for the old letter, one for the new. Either entry grants me access to the drive, as if they are independent of each other.


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## qldit (Mar 18, 2005)

Lot of fun there I wonder whether the actual USB driver may have been corrupted?
Is there any problem with other USB devices, like flashdrives and MP-3 players and stuff like that.
Does the machine boot normally without the drive plugged in, if so, does the phantom appear when the drive is plugged in while the machine is running normally.
I imagine it won't.
If it does there is most likely something wrong with the driver or the drive, if the phantoms only happen when it is fitted and found during boot it may be a different consideration.

Of course I am only guessing! LOL!
Cheers, qldit.


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## qldit (Mar 18, 2005)

By the way does the drive contain any important stuff, if so can it be removed to allow a drive zerowrite procedure, I was thinking there may be some kind of impediment with the first cylinder that by experience I have found easiest to overcome by completely zero writing the drive, running a few tests then reinstating.
Was there any reason you were allotting a drive letter to it specifically?
qldit.


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## Rainking (May 13, 2006)

qldit said:


> Is there any problem with other USB devices, like flashdrives and MP-3 players and stuff like that.


I actually have three different USB drives: An MP3 player that is picked up by WinXP as a USB drive, a drive I use for external backup, and a third that contains such things as internet downloads and my entire music collection. All encounter the same issue, whether any one is plugged in at a given time, or they are all plugged in together.



qldit said:


> Does the machine boot normally without the drive plugged in, if so, does the phantom appear when the drive is plugged in while the machine is running normally.


It does boot normally, either with it plugged in or not. A phantom does not appear unless I reassign the drive a certain letter, as noted earlier, or I unplug it and then plug it back in, in which case the old letter becomes a phantom (see first post) and the drive gets reassigned the next available letter.



qldit said:


> I was thinking there may be some kind of impediment with the first cylinder that by experience I have found easiest to overcome by completely zero writing the drive, running a few tests then reinstating.


It happens with all three USB drives, not just one.



qldit said:


> Was there any reason you were allotting a drive letter to it specifically?


Well, given their different functions, I like them all to have different letters. And some software I have pointing to certain drive letters. i.e. my backup software to the backup USB, and Windows Media Player to my music library on the other USB.


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## qldit (Mar 18, 2005)

Good Evening Rainking, well that is certainly odd.

Johnwill has a USB refresh procedure that may well be worth trying

Alternatively, have you considered a malware possibility?

I find that using the Smartcop program is very useful to uncover odd problems in many machines.
http://www.s-cop.com/free-scanner.html
This is a small stand alone scanner that operates somewhat broader than an ordinary A/V.
It generally finds many odd suspects, but where it really becomes useful is running it with another decent A/V monitoring, this procedure commonly finds undetected programs, very often detected in the monitoring system, obviously by some unique effect from the smartcop scanner in progress..

I prefer to put it in a directory like C:\Smartcop so that it can easily be operated in safemode if neccessary.

If any detections are made I don't like deleting anything until I have determined what it is and what effect it may have produced.

This dual procedure regularly catches problems that major A/Vs have missed, it also often finds viral signatures within A/V systems which I don't believe should be present.

If we consider file corruption involvement, as apart from a buggy MS Update, it really doesn't leave much else for consideration, given that the system otherwise has absolute normal hard and software component integrity. 
qldit.


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## JohnWill (Oct 19, 2002)

Here's the USB driver refresh procedure, in case you haven't tried it yet.

Create a file with NOTEPAD containing the following lines and save it as FIX.REG
-------------------------- cut after this line --------------------------------
REGEDIT4

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Environment]

"DEVMGR_SHOW_NONPRESENT_DEVICES"="1"
-------------------------- cut before this line --------------------------------

Double click on FIX.REG and say yes to the Merge Into Registry question.

Unplug ALL USB devices.
Open Device Manager.
View, Show Hidden Devices.
Uninstall all devices under USB Controllers.
Uninstall all devices under Disk Drives that you know are not present.
Uninstall all devices under Storage Volumes. Say no to any reboot prompts until you are finished. Also, if a Storage Volume doesn't uninstall, ignore it and move to the next one.
If you have a yellow ? with unknown devices, uninstall all of the entries there as well.

When this is done, reboot TWICE.

Reconnect the USB devices and see if they're recognized properly.

NOTE: If you have a USB keyboard and/or mouse, you'll have to modify the instructions and leave enough parts for those to function. I don't have one yet, so I haven't had time to modify the instructions.


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## Rainking (May 13, 2006)

Well, I finally got the chance to sit down and try your suggestion, JohnWill. I followed it to the letter, but the problem persists. Kinda discouraging; starting to think of more drastic measures that I might need to take if need be.

qldit, I'm pretty confident it's not malware. I use Kerio Personal Firewall, AVG A/V, and Spyware Doctor 3.8, and keep them all up-to-date. I run scans regularly, and have run them since this problem, with no detections. So, I'm pretty sure it's not that.



qldit said:


> (Personally I can't understand why Linux isn't the preferred operating system)LOL!


LOL! I know. And I do like Linux alot. I have a few distros I mess with through VMWare Player, and like what I see. But I rely on my computer to do tons of things, not the least of which is gaming. That's why my preferred OS is Windows, and it's likely to stay that way. Personally, I'm impressed that XP runs as good as it does given the ambitious goal of supporting just about everything, and getting each thing to run easily and play nice with other things on the computer (except of course little hiccups like this). And it just feels a bit more user-friendly than the Linux distros I play with (although I like getting my hands dirty in both Linux and XP).


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## JohnWill (Oct 19, 2002)

All I can say is, I hope I don't run across this again!  I have no idea what's happening there...


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## qldit (Mar 18, 2005)

Good Morning Rainking, Yes I envisage a great future for Linux, I think it is a wise person that gets some experience using it and learning something about it.

I really couldn't understand why machines that had the best A/V systems installed and the most careful owners with all their updates kept having strange problems.

Previously I just cleaned the drive and reloaded windows, and the problem was gone, so quite obviously the problem was software related.

On one occasion I had one of these problem machines here for a couple of weeks, the owner had it to a shop and they couldn't find any problem with it and wanted to charge some enormous fee, I did the hero thing and said I would have a look, so this damned thing became a bit of a challenge. 
I must have run at least half a dozen different A/V programs on it, apart from the usual Adaware and Spybot programs. He originally had Norton on it.

When I ran the (spybot) Edit, should read "Smartcop" it had detections, odd things, not neccessarily real, but present, so I did not delete anything and kept running different combinations of A/V and malware detection programs.
This became interesting when I ran smartcop in conjunction with AVG it had a real "hit" in the monitoring AVG. I forget the actual report but it was a definite. I didn't delete it, and then uninstalled all the malware programs apart from Smartcop.
I knew the file, location and that it was one off so I left it there.

So installing other A/V systems and running them in their scan modes was negative, but once again using them as monitoring with smartcop scanning produced hits.
Eventually after a lot of playing I found the best combination was "Antivir"
http://www.free-av.com/

Since then I have found at least four machines with undetectable problems, and others I have suggested this procedure to have also reported determinations.

It is odd that more often these machines have Adaware and Spybot S&D loaded. (or have had previously loaded)
The owners regularly updated all programs.

Running Adaware also was noted to jump it's file count during scans, whether it is relevant I have no idea.
I suspect one of these program updates may be involved in some kind of indirect way.
No further comment.

Cheers, qldit.


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## RickBerg (May 26, 2006)

I have the same problem with phantom drive letters appearing, Please let me knoe how this has been resolved.


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## Rainking (May 13, 2006)

Welcome RickBerg. Unfortunately, I haven't found a solution yet. I'm planning on just backing everything up, formatting, and reinstalling everything fresh (The usual cure-all for Windows hiccups). I just haven't gotten around to it yet. I do strongly suspect it has to do with one of the Windows XP updates I recently downloaded, since I could not uninstall some of them to see if the problem would go away. I just have no proof of it. Hopefully, if more and more get this problem, then it will have to be thoroughly investigated by somebody, and a solution issued.

That said, I plan on testing each recent Windows XP update as I reinstall them on the reformat. I hope to discover that one of them is to blame. If it turns out so, I'll post it here. Just don't hold your breath. I'm not sure when I'll get around to it.


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## JohnWill (Oct 19, 2002)

FWIW, I just spotted a post in the MVP newsgroups about someone having this problem. They also don't have any solution, but there is some speculation that it's some AV or spyware scanner that's not allowing the drive letters to be released. I'll post more if we figure it out. I'm curious too, since I'd like to have a solution next time this comes up.


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## RickBerg (May 26, 2006)

Well I guess I can live with it for the time being since a reformat and reinstallation of Windows is not the party I had planned. As long as I can make the phantoms disappear with a reboot, I will see what others can come up with. Thanks for the reply, and please keep me posted on how you mare able to resolve this.


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## RickBerg (May 26, 2006)

Yes, maybe it is an AV or spyware scanner? I recently installed SpyWare Doctor. Not sure if this is when the problem started. Also, I have Norton 2006 AV, but that has been installed for several months, and I am sure the problem is not that old.


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## JohnWill (Oct 19, 2002)

Well, you could try uninstalling recent additons, just to see what happens.


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## RickBerg (May 26, 2006)

OK. I am going to remove Spyware Doctor and see how it goes. It is the only new addition in the last 2-3-months ouside of Windows fixes.


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## JohnWill (Oct 19, 2002)

It may be the Windows fixes. I had never heard of this problem until recently, suddenly I've seen it in three places!


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## RickBerg (May 26, 2006)

Well I removed Spyware Doctor and the problem is still there, so I am thinking that there was a windows fix that needs fixing. Hopefully Vista will be less troublesome, but give MS's history, I doubt it!


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## Bob Cerelli (Nov 3, 2002)

I would be surprised if one of the updates from Microsoft would be causing this problem. We would be seeing on way more that just a few posts here and there. Worked on 50 computers last week that all had the latest updates. No phantom drive letters anywhere.


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## RickBerg (May 26, 2006)

What a mystery!


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## win2kpro (Jul 19, 2005)

Here is a little tidbit I picked up at another site a couple of weeks ago. I don't know if it works because I haven't had a machine in for repair with the phantom drive problem.

One of you with the phantom drive problem may want to give this a shot and see if it solves the problem.

"Regardless, what is almost undoubtedly causing the drive letter switch is a phantom version of one or more drives in the registry. This little batch file 
http://www.computer-help.net/FTP-Files/Windows-Device-MGR-w-Phantom-Devices.bat will launch a Device Manager window. Do View -> Show Hidden Devices and it will list all of the hardware that Windows ever thought was installed in the system. Uninstall the grayed out duplicates of any of your drives and any that are no longer in the system.

That should make Windows stop deciding to use different volume settings depending on how it feels, today."


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## JohnWill (Oct 19, 2002)

If you look at my USB repair procedure that he's already tried, he's already turned that registry entry on and deleted all the phantom drives.


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## Rainking (May 13, 2006)

Bob Cerelli said:


> I would be surprised if one of the updates from Microsoft would be causing this problem. We would be seeing on way more that just a few posts here and there.


I considered that, too, but I came to the conclusion that many people may not use a USB drive all that often, let alone even own one. Also, if someone does use one, it may not be very often that they plug it in more than once before shutting down their computer at the end of session, thereby making any phantom drive letters disappear.


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## RickBerg (May 26, 2006)

I agree with you Rainking


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## RickBerg (May 26, 2006)

I called Microsoft on this one. Actually got through!(I chose the $35 support option). I got bumped up to a Microsoft "engineer" in India who has called me back twice on two separate occasions at a mutually agreed upon time. After the first time he took it to a committee meeting and then got back to me. So far they are stumped and have not been able to resolve the issue. Is interesting, huh??


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## Rainking (May 13, 2006)

Very interesting!! I've been visiting my parents, and while using my USB drive on my father's computer, guess what's been happening? First time experiencing this on his PC. I'm more confident than ever it's related to a Windows XP update... though I still haven't gotten around to doing a test installation to determine which one (it'll be relatively "easy" since I keep manual copies of each update issued). Sorry...


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## Bob Cerelli (Nov 3, 2002)

Rainking said:


> I considered that, too, but I came to the conclusion that many people may not use a USB drive all that often, let alone even own one. Also, if someone does use one, it may not be very often that they plug it in more than once before shutting down their computer at the end of session, thereby making any phantom drive letters disappear.


What new information makes you come to that conclusion.


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## RickBerg (May 26, 2006)

Just out of curiosity, Rainking, what is the brand of USB device that you are using?


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## Rainking (May 13, 2006)

RickBerg said:


> Just out of curiosity, Rainking, what is the brand of USB device that you are using?


My main device for file transfers and whatnot is an 80GB Toshiba notebook drive housed in a generic USB body. My backup disk is a 100GB Tosh notebook drive, also in a generic USB body. Occasionally I also plug in a 1GB Creative MuVo TX FM MP3 player.



Bob Cerelli said:


> What new information makes you come to that conclusion.


None, actually. I'm just basing that statement off of my own knowledge of the average Joe's computer habits, as well as my own habits on other computers such as the one I use at work.


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## RickBerg (May 26, 2006)

I believe it may have something to do with using multiple USB devices, and a windows update as you have said. I also use multiple USB devices. Various ext USB hard drives, an IPOD and a thumb drive. Am expecting another call from India tomorrow evening. I have been spending quite a bit of time with him on the phone. Waiting for them to bump me up to corporate HQ in 
Seattle!


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## Bob Cerelli (Nov 3, 2002)

Rainking said:


> None, actually. I'm just basing that statement off of my own knowledge of the average Joe's computer habits, as well as my own habits on other computers such as the one I use at work.


Does the one you use at work experience the exact same problem with the phantom drive letters as well.

Also what are the exact steps you took to do this. So far I can't reproduce it on any computers that I've used USB drive on and all have the latest updates. Still trying to determine if that is really the cause.


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## JohnWill (Oct 19, 2002)

I'm guessing that it's a combination of things, not one simple thing. It may be related to Windows Updates, but since I have yet to find a system that I can play with that exhibits the problem, it's pretty difficult to know for sure.


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## Bob Cerelli (Nov 3, 2002)

Yes it's pretty obvious that it isn't something as simple as windows updates causing the problem. So many other people would be experiencing the same problem by now if that were the case.


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## bp936 (Oct 13, 2003)

regarding the phantom usb drives, I also use them a lot, on several different computers. USB drives always shows up correctly on my computers where I refuse to update Windows. But on the computers that are updated, I have a similar problem of either not showing or showing too many drives that I don't have, either unplugged or plugged in. At work, the driveletter always gets lost, only if it is plugged in and then restarted, will it show, kind of like with Win98. 
does this tell anyone anything?


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## Bob Cerelli (Nov 3, 2002)

Not too much. Do you have any detailed information how you make them show up. I can't replicate it on any computers that have the updates applied.

Like Johnwill said " it's a combination of things, not one simple thing"


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## RickBerg (May 26, 2006)

I am convinced it has to do with the number of different USB devices you have, how often you connect and disconnect them, etc. I was doing fine until I added 2 new devices to my collection, then whammo, it all happened. You can live with it, but you have to restart Windows everytime you disconnect a device. Microsoft is baffled also, BTW. They seem to want to blame Norton antivirus, but I thinks thats bull....I used Norton for like 2-3 years befote this developement.


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## Bob Cerelli (Nov 3, 2002)

How many would you suspect to be causing the problem. On mine I have at least 6 USB devices with all the updates and have yet to see this problem.

For example there is a card reader with 4 devices, two external USB hard drives, cell phone that has a usb connection, ipod that has a drive letter assigned when I connect it, several occasional external usb flash drives I used for keeping files current for work.


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## RickBerg (May 26, 2006)

I have one USB ext drive(western digital 320gb) that is permanently connected that is assigned a drive letter. Then I have 5 portable USB Hard drives (1 western digital, 2 pocketec, 1 edge diskgo, and 1 simpletec), 2 flash drives, an ipod, a nomad zen. It is when i connect and disconnect the nonportables (ie anything but the 320gb) that i get a ghost drive letter when I disconnect. For example, if I connect a pocketec it will show up as a drive letter "pocketec (k", then when I disconnect it will be "local disk (k" It will be like that on windows explorer but NOT on My Computer. For the Ip[or the "ghost" will be called "removeable disk(k"


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## bp936 (Oct 13, 2003)

I don't have Norton, I use AVG and spybot, and am happy with them, I check my computers often thru Kasperski onlinescanner. So I know it's not a virus. I also have a 7 in one usb connect , with scanner,printer, usb harddrive (Maxtor) connected and SD and XD cardreaders, flashdrives and mini usb 4gig harddrive, so nothing makes sense. But I think what I noticed is, any USB device works with the 7 in one or 5 in one USB hubs, but maybe the keychain type flashdrives in the other computer USB slots plugged in seems to cause the problems but not when plugged into the hub. Still show up as different drives with the hubs. Like I said, the non-updated XP works the best, never a problem. I don't know how to reproduce on some elses computer this problem. At work, on one computer the flashddrive works. on the other it has to be restarted with device plugged in. Both computers are new. one is one year old the other is 1 month old. The newest one is causing problems.
Hope we can find a solution for sometime for this problem.


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## Bob Cerelli (Nov 3, 2002)

With all the updates, and having removable drives connected to any of the USB ports (on the motherboard or extra PCI cards) and I still don't get any of these problems (let alone connecting things like my card reader, ipod etc. So again like Johnwill said, it is not as simple as just one thing like updates

Now an easy way to determine if it is really the updates casing the problem would be to simply image the current computer (don't always rely on System Restore to work), apply the updates and see if you actually get the symptom or not. Then it eliminates all the guesswork.


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## RickBerg (May 26, 2006)

Or just give up and live with it


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## JohnWill (Oct 19, 2002)

FWIW, I have a number of systems, and I connect a variety of USB drives, hard, FLASH, and external DVD's. All the systems are current on Windows updates, and none have exhibited the problem described here.

The only issue I have is occasionally the system will become confused about USB drives and stop recognizing them. That's when I apply the USB fix that I've posted here frequently, including Post #14 in this thread.


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## RickBerg (May 26, 2006)

I did try your USB fix, to the tee, and the problem is still there...


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## JohnWill (Oct 19, 2002)

Right, I did mention that I didn't think it was the cure for this particular issue. I was just saying that the issue of the device not being properly recognized is all I normally experience.


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## RickBerg (May 26, 2006)

Well I just got off the line with the Microsoft engineer in India for the third time in a week. He is as baffled as the rest of us. He is going to take the issue to his committee again tomorrow and call me back again for the forth time on Thursday. I did mention this thread to him so they could see this is not an isolated problem on only one system.


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## JohnWill (Oct 19, 2002)

It's indeed an odd one.  He can also visit the MVP XP newsgroup, because there's a discussion about the problem going on about the same issue.


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## RickBerg (May 26, 2006)

New Development...My phantom drive letter issue seems to have magically self-corrected. Just as it mysteriously appeared one day, it now has magically disappeared. I did NOTHING to cause it to go either way, to my knowledge. Weird, heh? Now what I have is my 4 USB portable drives have a drive letter that is permanently assigned to each one.(ie. if I connect the Western Digital Passport it shows up as drive O: even though K,L,M,& N are not being used at the time). When I disconnect, it goes away and does NOT stay on as a phantom O: In a similar fashion, the other three are assigned to L, M, & N respectively - but no more ghosts! I did nothing and the microsoft guy blew me off Thur. PM. So there is $35 down the drain....


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## pugmug (Jun 13, 2005)

Hey! Be nice. Poor Bill Gates needs all the money he can get. lol !


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## ceri sheeran (Aug 15, 2003)

Hi,

Thought I'd throw this one in. May help a little

My work computer has mapped network drives from a couple of different servers.

XP Pro SP 2 HP P4 2.8, so little memory I'd be embarrassed to tell you.

The machine will not recognise any flash drive plugged in normally during use.

If however I plug even a single flash drive in prior to boot. 

Then I can use and safely remove any of my 3 USB flash drives without any problems.

I have 512MB 1GB & 2GB fash drives. all USB 2 of course.

The Network drive letters all move up.

I've tried assigning later drive letters not used anywhere on the network as mapped drives to the USB flash drives without success.

It is a minor PITA but when I get to work I simply have to fish out my USB flash drive(s) plug them in...

All three is better. Boot and off we go.

Front and rear USB ports are the same.

The network drive letters do not change, but XP will not recognise a flash drive unless I do this.

Once recognised then I have no problems. Any USB flash drive works in any of the USB sockets.

When I have to reboot, I simply ensure I have a flash drive plugged in.

My smallest flash drive has twice the memory of my PC, the largest 8 times.

I get on very well with my hour glass icon, we are close friends as we see so much of each other.

hth

Ceri


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## Bob Cerelli (Nov 3, 2002)

Is that only because the mapped drive letters conflict with the USB ones. I like to avoid all that by simply mapping drive letters that are farther down the alphabet


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## ceri sheeran (Aug 15, 2003)

Bob,

All my USB flash drives have letters lower than the network drives. 

Lowest networked drive letter is U, this is my personal space on a network drive. I don't use it anyway. 

My flash drives are X. Y & Z, 

W is my Western Digital external USB hardd rive.

It is a minor PITA but it works. 

It just may have been relevant, if there are any networked mapped drives involved.

Ceri


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## kh1234567890 (Jun 20, 2006)

It is not just USB drives. Mounting an encrypted Truecrypt volume and then dismounting it also leaves a phantom drive letter behind. Well, nearly all the time. Interestingly, the phantom letters do not show when explorer is started from 'My Computer' but do show if you run explorer.exe. I am 99% sure that it is a ****-up in a recent MS update.


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## Rainking (May 13, 2006)

Well, got good news, at least for me. I just came home from vacation and downloaded the latest Windows updates, 11 of them, and voila. Problem gone. I connected and disconnected the drives three times apiece and they each retained their drive letters with no phantom letters left behind. I noticed that a couple of the Windows updates were reissues of previous ones. Not sure which one fixed it. I'll keep an eye on this, perhaps let a month go by with no problems before I consider this solved, at least for me. I hope this is the same problem and fix for all of you as well. Here is a list by KB article numbers of the ones I installed:

KB913580
KB917734
KB905474
KB892130
KB911280
KB914389
KB916281
KB917344
KB917953
KB918439
KB890830 (MSR Tool 1.17--doubtful this was the original cause)


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## RickBerg (May 26, 2006)

Yea mine seems to have fixed itself also. Yippee!!


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## kh1234567890 (Jun 20, 2006)

Rainking said:


> KB905474


I have all of these except KB905474 - latest version of MS WGA spyware. I still have the phantom drive problem. Draw your own conclusions.


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## Rainking (May 13, 2006)

kh1234567890 said:


> I have all of these except KB905474 - latest version of MS WGA spyware. I still have the phantom drive problem. Draw your own conclusions.


Actually, come to think of it, all of this started happening to me pretty much at the time the initial version of this update was issued. Should've known it was that one.


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## RickBerg (May 26, 2006)

After all the Calls from India, Microsoft actually refunded my $35 tech support fee. I guess they knew it was an update issue....


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## kh1234567890 (Jun 20, 2006)

Rainking said:


> Actually, come to think of it, all of this started happening to me pretty much at the time the initial version of this update was issued. Should've known it was that one.


Actually, removing Spyware Doctor, reassigning drive letters in Disk Management for all my USB cameras, memory sticks, mp3 players etc - renaming each in the process from the 'Removable drive' default and rebooting after each change seems to have cured the problem. For now at least.


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## salto (Jul 10, 2006)

I have the latest WinXP updates and tried the USB fix, however, I am still having the phantom driveletters. I have an external drive with 2 card readers, creating 3 new drives every time I reconnect the drive. So in the end I have this long list of non existing drives. I was wondering if meanwhile there is any more follow up on this issue, I don't seem to get it solved.
Your help is much appreciated.


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## kh1234567890 (Jun 20, 2006)

Removing Spyware Doctor cured it for me. On another machine I just removed Spyware Doctor without all the renaming and rebooting. It also cured it there for good.


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## salto (Jul 10, 2006)

I was unaware SpyWare Doctor was a component of my Hitman Pro installation. Your follow up made me search for recently installed software on my machine and so I found out. I uninstalled the SpyWare Doctor component of Hitman Pro and it seems to solve the issue indeed. The external drive including the card readers get the same steady series of drive letters assigned. Not in a logical manner, it should be H, I, J, but since they appear as K, L, M every time after connecting-disconnecting and rebooting I am satisfied. No more phantom drive letters and I no longer have to change the driveletters in my batchfiles and scheduled tasks running on that disk every time. Thank you very much for your help!


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