For people with disappearing devices

[Don]

I'm happy to say I've not had any need to try this (yet) but it sounds
interesting. I saw this hint in 'Windows Vista Inside Out':
---------------------------------
To view devices that were once installed but are no longer
attached to the computer, open a Command Prompt window using
the Run As Administrator option and enter the command
SET DEVMGR_SHOW_NONPRESENT_DEVICES=1.

Then, from the same command prompt, type devmgmt.msc to open Device
Manager. Choose View, Show Hidden Devices. The new instance of Device
Manager now shows “ghosted” entries for devices that were once present.

This technique is especially useful for fixing problems caused by
leftover drivers after replacing a network card or video card —
just delete the ghosted device.

 

[Guest]

My missing floppy drive shows up as " a hidden device". How do I fix it to
get my floppy back?

 

[Don]

My missing floppy drive shows up as " a hidden device". How do I fix it to
get my floppy back?

The quote below suggests you should delete the hidden device. Did you
try that?

 

[Guest]

I got it back, finally, Don. As a last resort, I attempted to reinstall
Vista. The installation aborted (while I was out of the room). When my
original desktop came back, the "found new hardware" message appeared and now
my floppy is recognized in windows and works. I'll never know what happened,
but apparently the attempt to reinstall windows must have done something. It
might be a motherboard issue too. Thanks for your help.