"Removable Disk" appears when memory card is inserted

[GeV]

I get what looks like external hard drives appearing in My Computer when I plug in a memory card. The memory card reads fine. When
I click on the Removable Disk a message box appears asking me to "Please insert a disk into Drive F". 3 more appear as well for
drive G, H, and I. Also a phamtom CD drive (D appears also. I don't even use an optical drive at the moment. Any idea what could
be causing this? When I Eject the memory card these "drives" stay there until I restart Windows.

 

[M.I.5¾]

I get what looks like external hard drives appearing in My Computer when I
plug in a memory card.

Is the icon that of a fixed disc drive or that of a removeable drive? They
look similar except the latter has a large slot in the front. It should be
the latter. What are you actually plugging the card into?

The memory card reads fine. When I click on the Removable Disk a message
box appears asking me to "Please insert a disk into Drive F".

I have to confess to being confused here. You say you can access the card,
but clicking on it doesn't work. How are you accessing it if you aren't
clicking on it?

3 more appear as well for drive G, H, and I. Also a phamtom CD drive (D
appears also. I don't even use an optical drive at the moment. Any idea
what could be causing this?

If you are using a multiport card reader it is normal for the drives to
appear in 'My Computer' even if there is no card inserted.

If not: have you had these drives present on your machine in the past? If
so it may be picking them up from the registry. To solve this, try deleting
their entries from the registry. To do this proceed as follows:

From the start button open a comand prompt window.

Type in (without the quotes obviously)

"set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1"

then type

"start devmgmt.msc"

The device manager will open, but *don't* close the command prompt yet.
Select 'Show Hidden Devices' from the 'View' menu. You should find your
phantom drives under disc drives and your phantom CD drive under CD-ROM
drives (with or without your memory card inserted). They will be greyed as
they are not connected. You can right click and uninstall them. While you
are at it, you might as well uninstall the card that is causing the problems
(F:?).

Now you can close the device manager and command prompt, and try inserting
your memory card again - it will install like its never been seen before.

When I Eject the memory card these "drives" stay there until I restart
Windows.

Does this solve or change anything?

 

[Bob I]

This "memory card" doesn't happen to be a "U3 enabled" memory
stick/thumb drive?

 

[GeV]

I get what looks like external hard drives appearing in My Computer when I plug in a memory card.

Is the icon that of a fixed disc drive or that of a removeable drive? They look similar except the latter has a large slot in the
front. It should be the latter. What are you actually plugging the card into?

The icon is of an optical drive. It says
CD Drive (H).
When there are more its
CD Drive (I)
CD Drive (J)
etc.

If not: have you had these drives present on your machine in the past? If so it may be picking them up from the registry.

That sounds likely.

To solve this, try deleting their entries from the registry. To do this proceed as follows:
From the start button open a comand prompt window.
Type in (without the quotes obviously)
"set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1"

It says it cannot find "set". I inserted an underscore after set but the error message then wrote cannot find
set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1
and then tells me to use a search function.

then type

"start devmgmt.msc"

The device manager will open, but *don't* close the command prompt yet. Select 'Show Hidden Devices' from the 'View' menu. You
should find your phantom drives under disc drives and your phantom CD drive under CD-ROM drives (with or without your memory card
inserted). They will be greyed as they are not connected. You can right click and uninstall them. While you are at it, you
might as well uninstall the card that is causing the problems (F:?).

Now you can close the device manager and command prompt, and try inserting your memory card again - it will install like its never
been seen before.

I think we're on the right track - I'll wait for your reply.

 

[M.I.5¾]

The icon is of an optical drive. It says
CD Drive (H).
When there are more its
CD Drive (I)
CD Drive (J)
etc.



That sounds likely.


It says it cannot find "set". I inserted an underscore after set but the
error message then wrote cannot find
set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1
and then tells me to use a search function.


I think we're on the right track - I'll wait for your reply.

Strange. 'Set' is a standard command prompt command. What happens if you
type 'help set'?

OK then, the other way of doing this is to click on 'Start' and then
'Run...' and type 'regedit' into the box. When the registry editor opens
navigate to the following part of the registry.

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session
Manager\Environment] (If it wraps there is a space in 'Session Manager')

Create a new binary key (if it doesn't already exist - which it probably
won't) in the right hand pane called "DEVMGR_SHOW_NONPRESENT_DEVICES" (right
click and select 'add')

Set it's value equal to '1'. Now close the registry editor and reboot the
machine.

When you open device manger (the way you normally do), the 'Show Hidden
Devices' option will now always show you the disconnected devices and you
should now be able to delete the phantom drives.

 

[babu1572]

i have sandisk 2 gb micro sd card . i used it with my E51 nokia cell phone . i lost that cell phone but fortunately my memory card wasnt lost. i didnt use that memory card for 1 year . now i need to recover some documents , pictures and videos of my patients for my research purpose..but cant use this card. its not recognized by my computer or cell phone. how can i recover my desired things from that memory card. if anyone can help, it will be highly appreciated.
thanks
dr.babu