How do you delete a DVD drive listed in My Computer?

[randwill]

My system stopped recognizing one of my DVD drives and the other one only
played DVDs and not CDs. So I disconnected both and hooked up each, but the
results are the same. One doesn't play anything, the other only DVDs.

So I disconnected both entirely, with the idea to start all over.

However I can't get rid of the listing; Plextor DVD (E in My Computer.
There are no DVD drives showing up in Device Manager. It doesn't show in
Disc Management. I shut down for 5 minutes and even unplugged the power for
another 5 minutes but when I rebooted, there was Plextor DVD (E still
listed as being there.

Do I need to get rid of that to start from scratch re-installing the DVD
drives? If so, how can I convince Windows that there is absolutely no
Plextor DVD hooked up to it?

 

[PepperMill]

On Thu, 06 Sep 2007 18:25:46 GMT, "randwill"

l>My system stopped recognizing one of my DVD drives and the other one
only
l>played DVDs and not CDs. So I disconnected both and hooked up each,
but the
l>results are the same. One doesn't play anything, the other only
DVDs.
l>
l>So I disconnected both entirely, with the idea to start all over.
l>
l>However I can't get rid of the listing; Plextor DVD (E in My
Computer.
l>There are no DVD drives showing up in Device Manager. It doesn't
show in
l>Disc Management. I shut down for 5 minutes and even unplugged the
power for
l>another 5 minutes but when I rebooted, there was Plextor DVD (E
still
l>listed as being there.
l>
l>Do I need to get rid of that to start from scratch re-installing the
DVD
l>drives? If so, how can I convince Windows that there is absolutely
no
l>Plextor DVD hooked up to it?
l>

From what you write, you might have a registry problem...and I stress
"may have". I just had a very similar problem and I was amazed that
this change fixed it.

Have a look at this Microsoft site and note the registry changes at
the bottom.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314060

Patches which do this change for you are located here. Look down near
the bottom of this page for "Restore Missing CD Drives" and get that
zip file...
http://www.aumha.org/regfiles.htm Be sure to backup your registry and
then patch with this cdgone file.

Hope this helps fix!

 

[randwill]

From what you write, you might have a registry problem...and I stress
"may have". I just had a very similar problem and I was amazed that
this change fixed it.

Have a look at this Microsoft site and note the registry changes at
the bottom.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314060

Patches which do this change for you are located here. Look down near
the bottom of this page for "Restore Missing CD Drives" and get that
zip file...
http://www.aumha.org/regfiles.htm Be sure to backup your registry and
then patch with this cdgone file.

Hope this helps fix!

I checked carefully the registry section that the Microsoft page referenced
and did not find any UpperFilters or LowerFilter entries there.

I downloaded and ran the patch you sited anyway. Nothing has changed. The
stubborn Plextor DVD (E still remains in My Computer.

Is re-installing Windows XP the only option left to get rid of this?

 

[randwill]

Since no one seems to be able to tell me how to fix this I did an experiment
on my own.

I booted into Safe Mode. And hey, the Plextor (E didn't show up in "My
Computer".

So I went to Disk Management and reassigned my storage HD (which was "G") to
"E".

But when I rebooted into regular mode nothing had changed. The erroneous
Plextor drive still had the "E" and the storage HD was back to "G" when I
looked in "My Computer"..

I mention this in hopes that the fact that the erroneous drive doesn't show
up in "My Computer" will give some knowledgeable person a clue as to how to
help me fix this problem.