Removable Disks Shown....But They Aren't There!!

Could be any devices plugged into USB ports even if you don't have a card reader as Lemmi suggested. Printers, memory sticks, digital cameras, iPods, etc can all show up as removable disks.

Ron

maineac,

Did you by any chance connect an USB multicard reader?

Lemmi

maineiac,

Printers and scanners would not be listed as removable media, but as what they are (printers and scanners...). I work under XP Pro and my scanner is USB, but it would not show up in "my computer" as removable drive. Any USB memory stick does, however, as do the CD/DVD drives.

I thought on the card reader, as my mum's computer (XP Home) recognises her multicard reader as 4 additional drives (because of the 4 slots it has) when she lets it recognise by XP. And you listed 4 additional drive letters. , so I just thought that might be the reason why.

If you have no card reader connected NOW - did you ever connect one to this computer? I have read over cases where temporary connections did persist when the device was removed.

Happy Easter!

Lemmi

maineiac,

Others on this forum have reported that some USB HP printers also show up as removable drives on their systems. I'll bet your old machine probably had 'boot from USB' disabled in BIOS. Turn this function off in BIOS on the 8400 and see if the extra removable drives disappear. You can always turn this back on if you need it later.

Ron

Thanks for the comments and the BIOS suggestion.  I went into the setup menu and changed the USB settings to "NO BOOT".   Nevetheless I still get the same result.   I will try to play around with the settings when I get a chance later to see if there is anything else that might help.

I have had the same problem - in my case I have four - when looking at the properties, I surmise that they are listed as "TEAC USB HS-CF Card USB Device",... HS-MS..., HS-SD..., HS-xD/SM.... occupying drive letters F, G, H, and I.

Why are they there and can I get rid of them?

raymwu,

That seems to be a card reader as well - for compact flash cards, SD-cards and so on - 4 different card formats = 4 slots = 4 drives = 4 drive letters.

If you disconnect the card reader, the additional drive letters should disappear. If you install it with the drivers supplied, the four drives should have different symbols corresponding to the different card formats. If you let XP recognise the hardware, all slots (drives) appear with the same symbol.

I got the solution!:smileyvery-happy:

go to your services and set the 'smart card' service to run AUTOMATICALLY.

perform a cold boot.

whatever you do, don't 'safely remove' the hardware

your card should work fine now.

also: make shure not to remove the card while the light is flashing.

if unsure, go to my computer and 'eject' the card before fysically removing

no thanks to the dell support people. If you want to thank, thank me.

Strange, indeed.

Did you ever connect a card reader?

And is there a connection in time between installing the Canon software and the appearance of the 4 additional drive letters? Then it would maybe help to contact Canon to see if this is normal behaviour.

I'm afraid I'm at my wits' end. I have these 4 "aliens" only when I connect my card reader and they disappear as soon as I remove it.

Good luck!

Lemmi

PS: It may help to post your problem again in a new thread.  The number of people looking so far back in the Forum posts is presumably close to zero....