Drive letters do not appear in Windows XP SP2 **PIC**

[Tremulant]

So, I'm having this problem. My drive letters do not show up in Windows XP SP2. I just noticed it a few days ago and I can't seem to find a fix. I've searched both google and microsoft and I end up with a bunch of "how-to change your drive letter" tutorials.

So, if anyone has seen this, please let me know. It's not extremely urgent, since I will be blowing away this installation in about a month, but I'd like to figure it out anyways.

I took a screenshot, just to show what I mean.

Example

Thanks.

 

[bsobel]

Weird. Does changing your view help (e.g. going from details view to icons and then back?)

Bill

 

[Tremulant]

Nope, that does nothing. I tried that on Friday (when I first noticed it). I thought it was a registry change that I had made a few month ago, but that change only effected the view of the other PCs on the network. The change was to swap the computer name and comments fields, since XP displayed them, by default, as 'comment (computer_name)' and that makes finding a PC by name a PITA. So, I made the change to swap that, since we put the EU's name in the comments field.

I switched it back, and it still does it.

 

[loup garou]

Do the volumes have drive letters in Disk Management? If you change the drive letter in Disk Management is the change reflected in explorer? This is a strange one.

 

[Tremulant]

Originally posted by: werk
Do the volumes have drive letters in Disk Management? If you change the drive letter in Disk Management is the change reflected in explorer? This is a strange one.

Yes, the have drive letters.

No, the change does nothing visually. The letter changes (changed one of the cd drives to W and it moved closer to the bottom of the list), but it still doesn't tell me the drive letter.

 

[BadThad]

Originally posted by: werk
Do the volumes have drive letters in Disk Management? If you change the drive letter in Disk Management is the change reflected in explorer? This is a strange one.

Yes, what does Disk Manager show you?

 

[bsobel]

Originally posted by: Tremulant
Nope, that does nothing. I tried that on Friday (when I first noticed it). I thought it was a registry change that I had made a few month ago, but that change only effected the view of the other PCs on the network. The change was to swap the computer name and comments fields, since XP displayed them, by default, as 'comment (computer_name)' and that makes finding a PC by name a PITA. So, I made the change to swap that, since we put the EU's name in the comments field.

I switched it back, and it still does it.

What registry key did you change? I'd like to peak at mine see if anything jumps out...
Bill

 

[Tremulant]

Originally posted by: bsobel

Originally posted by: Tremulant
Nope, that does nothing. I tried that on Friday (when I first noticed it). I thought it was a registry change that I had made a few month ago, but that change only effected the view of the other PCs on the network. The change was to swap the computer name and comments fields, since XP displayed them, by default, as 'comment (computer_name)' and that makes finding a PC by name a PITA. So, I made the change to swap that, since we put the EU's name in the comments field.

I switched it back, and it still does it.

What registry key did you change? I'd like to peak at mine see if anything jumps out...
Bill

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\policies\Explorer
"ToggleCommentPosition"=dword:00000001
"ShowDriveLettersFirst"=dword:00000004

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/330193

 

[Tremulant]

Originally posted by: BadThad

Originally posted by: werk
Do the volumes have drive letters in Disk Management? If you change the drive letter in Disk Management is the change reflected in explorer? This is a strange one.

Yes, what does Disk Manager show you?

disk management

 

[gsaldivar]

There is an option in TweakUI (part of PowerToys for XP) that can fix this:

http://malektips.com/xpwtw0023.html

http://microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/downloads/powertoys.asp

 

[bsobel]

Ok, that makes more sene now. You'll notice the "ShowDriverLettersFirst" value documents '2' as "drives letters are NOT displayed". So, somehow (I suspect) your getting this setting.

Can you check the same path, but instead of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE check HKEY_CURRENT_USER\ (this setting can be applied machine wide, OR on a user by user setting). I'm guessing one of those two places has this set to 2

Bill

 

[Tremulant]

Originally posted by: bsobel
Ok, that makes more sene now. You'll notice the "ShowDriverLettersFirst" value documents '2' as "drives letters are NOT displayed". So, somehow (I suspect) your getting this setting.

Can you check the same path, but instead of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE check HKEY_CURRENT_USER\ (this setting can be applied machine wide, OR on a user by user setting). I'm guessing one of those two places has this set to 2

Bill

I actually have "ShowDriveLettersFirst" set to 4.

Once I read what 2 did, I set it to 4. Even though, on another machine here, it's set to 2 (part of our image for the xp rollout) and it makes no noticable difference.

btw, from my registry:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\policies\Explorer
"ToggleCommentPosition"=dword:00000001
"ShowDriveLettersFirst"=dword:00000004

Edit: under HKCU, the togglecommentposition and showdrivelettersfirst entries do not exist.

 

[bsobel]

Can you please post the same registry snippet but from HKEY_CURRENT_USER instead of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE?

Thanks,
Bill

 

[Tremulant]

Originally posted by: bsobel
Can you please post the same registry snippet but from HKEY_CURRENT_USER instead of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE?

Thanks,
Bill

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
"NoDriveTypeAutoRun"=dword:00000091

 

[Slikkster]

Start --> Run --> and type in without quotes "gpedit.msc"

Now, take a look at:

User Configuration --> Administrative Templates --> Windows Explorer

The setting "Hide these specified drives in My Computer" (default should be "Not Configured"

If it says "Not configured", I would try toggling it to "Disabled" and recheck My Computer.
You can always toggle it back.

Also, when you log on as Administrator, do you have the same problem seeing the drives?

Also, other hints at what could be in play, including what I typed above:

http://www.novell.com/coolsolutions/trench/3600.html

 

[Tremulant]

Originally posted by: Slikkster
Start --> Run --> and type in without quotes "gpedit.msc"

Now, take a look at:

User Configuration --> Administrative Templates --> Windows Explorer

The setting "Hide these specified drives in My Computer" (default should be "Not Configured"

If it says "Not configured", I would try toggling it to "Disabled" and recheck My Computer.
You can always toggle it back.

Also, when you log on as Administrator, do you have the same problem seeing the drives?

Tried that, did nothing. I'll log out and retry in a few minutes (currently in a webex meeting and can't exit it atm.. heh)

Edit: Haven't tried it as another user either, but I will when I get the chance.

 

[Slikkster]

Pretty sure you'd have to reboot to effect.

Did you check this setting?

To cloak a drive, open the Registry Editor and navigate down to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer. Look for an icon labeled NoDrives in the right pane. If you don't see such an icon, right-click anywhere in the right pane, choose the New, DWORD Value option, type NoDrives, and press Enter to name it. Double-click the NoDrives icon, and in the Edit DWORD Value dialog box, select Decimal. In the 'Value data' box, type a value that corresponds to the drive you want to hide--for A: 1; B: 2; C: 4; D: 8; E: 16; F: 32; G: 64; H: 128; I: 256; J: 512; and so on. To hide multiple drives, add up the relevant numbers and type that sum in the 'Value data' box. For example, if you want to hide drives E: and F:, you would determine 16 + 32 and type the sum, 48, in the 'Value data' box. To hide all drives, type 67108863. When you're done, click OK. You'll have to log off and then log back on to see the effect.

The policy you quoted only affects autorun, as I understand it.

 

[Tremulant]

Aha! Thanks Slikkster, it works now. The group policy seemed to be it. Strange though.

I didn't try the drive cloaking, since it has no use for me.

And yes, the key I pasted from HKCU is autorun only, the one from HKLM affects the way computers are displayed while browing the network.

 

[bsobel]

And yes, the key I pasted from HKCU is autorun only, the one from HKLM affects the way computers are displayed while browing the network.

Actually Explorer checks the HKCU first, and if there is no value specified it then checks HKLM (e.g. HKLM is the default, while HKCU is the per user customization)

Bill

 

[Slikkster]

Glad it's working. I didn't want you to try drive cloaking, however...I just wanted you to check that setting to see if it was there. Anyway, good luck.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Intriguing. I'm filing this one under the Windows' "X-Files" category..

Semi-related to this, is there an easy way to force a drive's displayed name in Explorer? i'm kind of tired of having XP swap around between the volume label of an inserted CD, and a detailed device-type named ("CD-RW", "DVD-RW", "DVD-ROM"), and simply "CD Drive". I kind of wish that I could simply just name them something a bit more descriptive, like "Toshiba", "NEC", "Lite-On", etc., so I could easily know which (physical) drive is which. I know that you can "name" removable flash drives/card-readers, at least some of them come with optionally-installable software to do that.

 

[Slikkster]

Run the script on line 191 from Kelly's Korner:

http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm

 

[Grimner]

Thanks for a most helpful thread - you all have gotten me further than Microsoft could, but, alas to no avail.

My problem is not quite what Tremulant describes, so I'll put it so: All hard drive partitions, opticals and one old IDE Zip are available and usable without complaints.
The drives of one USB card reader and a RAMdrive are gone.

If I connect any USB storage device externally they come up without a hitch (that includes the same USB card reader; difficult to test the RAMdrive, but the software for that seams to load - just not accesible or visible in any other part of the system).

I think I messed around with the Registry before this happened so I take the responsiblity

I've tried the suggestions in this excellent thread and learned a few things on the way, but am still stuck. Any ideas before I pull out the Windows XP CD?

 

[Slikkster]

So you've checked out the "Drives" subsection of the "My Computer" section in Microsoft's TweakUI Powertoy? (mentioned above)

I would do that and make sure all drive letters are checked (checked means they will display)

If that all looks ok, I would use the Disk Management tool to change the Zip Drive to Drive Z and reboot. See if the other drives now show up. If still no good, I would disconnect the zip drive and see what difference that makes after a reboot.

 

[Grimner]

Double-check all entries in this thread, checked TweakUI, changed the letter on the Zip drive and disconnected it. No good for me either of them.

Ran an "update install" on Windows XP. That was fun - halfway it asked for a driver, and lo and behold, there was my missing USB drives. Marked in red, ok, but that was better than them not being there at all.
But once XP came back, nothing.
I am pretty sure this was my fault, messing with thing in the Registry I didn't know. Seems the complete reinstall is called for.

It strikes me that this goes a little deeper than just drive letters not showing. It's more like the drives is blocked or locked out.