Why Are Registy Changes Deleted After Rebooting?

[mjm]

I have a Gateway 816GM with a Memory Card reader that handles MMC/SD,
CompactFlashI/II, SmartMedia and MS/MS Pro. Each type shows up as a
separate drive letter.

I accidently "removed" this by clicking the "Safely Remove Hardware"
icon in the System Tray (was trying to detach a different USB-connected
device at the time and the cursor wasn't lined up properly). Upon
rebooting Plug and Play automatically detected the hardware and
installed drivers. Unfortunately, instead of the drive letters being
assigned the above names, they all say the generic "Removable Disk" in
Windows Explorer and My Computer.

In doing some Google searches, and in comparing to the model in the
store where I bought it, I see that names for drives are specified in
the Registry, specifically at: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \
Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Explorer \ DriveIcons. Just
create a key for each of the four drive letters, then another key for
each called DefaultLabel that contains the names/description I want.

After doing this, I go into Windows Explorer and My Computer and -
Bingo! - I have the names I wanted. But ... after rebooting, the names
went back to their generic "Removable Disk". And when I did REGEDIT
again, I saw that all of the changes I made had been removed!

So, what "protection" could be in place to delete Registry changes that
were manually made the next time the machine boots? How can I bypass
this to make my changes permanent?

By the way, I spent over one hour with Gateway in a Tech Chat, close to
another hour on a toll-call, and then 2 emails to a supposedly higher
level Tech Support. They don't have a clue. Now they want me to call
another line and give my credit card, or call a 900-number at $3/min. I
don't think so - I didn't just fall off the turnip truck.

 

[Joe Earnest]

I have a Gateway 816GM with a Memory Card reader that handles MMC/SD,
CompactFlashI/II, SmartMedia and MS/MS Pro. Each type shows up as a
separate drive letter.

I accidently "removed" this by clicking the "Safely Remove Hardware"
icon in the System Tray (was trying to detach a different USB-connected
device at the time and the cursor wasn't lined up properly). Upon
rebooting Plug and Play automatically detected the hardware and
installed drivers. Unfortunately, instead of the drive letters being
assigned the above names, they all say the generic "Removable Disk" in
Windows Explorer and My Computer.

In doing some Google searches, and in comparing to the model in the
store where I bought it, I see that names for drives are specified in
the Registry, specifically at: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \
Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Explorer \ DriveIcons. Just
create a key for each of the four drive letters, then another key for
each called DefaultLabel that contains the names/description I want.

After doing this, I go into Windows Explorer and My Computer and -
Bingo! - I have the names I wanted. But ... after rebooting, the names
went back to their generic "Removable Disk". And when I did REGEDIT
again, I saw that all of the changes I made had been removed!

So, what "protection" could be in place to delete Registry changes that
were manually made the next time the machine boots? How can I bypass
this to make my changes permanent?

By the way, I spent over one hour with Gateway in a Tech Chat, close to
another hour on a toll-call, and then 2 emails to a supposedly higher
level Tech Support. They don't have a clue. Now they want me to call
another line and give my credit card, or call a 900-number at $3/min. I
don't think so - I didn't just fall off the turnip truck.

XP's settings are different from other versions of Windows. I believe that
the drive icon and label specifications have to be set in two different
locations for XP. Duplicate the drive letter keys with DefaultIcon and
DefaultLabel settings under

HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Applications \ Explorer.exe \ Drives \ DriveIcons

as well as

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \
Explorer \ DriveIcons

This works for me (SP1 and SP2). I've had problems with some apps that
control certain types of drives replacing these icons, but I've worked that
out in the app. It's a user-by-user replacement, so (I think) the HKCU
setting actually controls the icons and labels displayed, regardless of a
conflict with the HKLM settings, so long as something is set in HKLM.
(I.e., each user can have different icons and labels.)

Joe Earnest

 

[R. C. White]

Hi, mjm.

Maybe you need to first assign "drive" letters in Disk Management. There
are several ways to get there; one is to type at the Run prompt:
diskmgmt.msc

In Disk Management, click View and set it up to suit yourself. I prefer it
in a Maximized window with the Volume list at the top and the Graphical View
on the bottom. Note that DM handles USB devices, digital cameras and
readers, CD/DVD drives, etc., in addition to hard drives.

If you assign "drive" letters here, WinXP will attempt to use the same
letters each time you reboot. Otherwise, it will use its built-in rules to
assign letters "from scratch" each time you reboot, which means that devices
that are removed and reconnected can change on each reboot.

RC