Phantom Drive Created

Hello,

Can you help please. I noticed some time ago when looking at Windows Explorer, an additional drive has been created. My DVD RW drive has always been 'E' since new and this is the CD/DVD drive my hardware has but I became aware of the creation of another drive named 'CD - R Drive (K:)'. Can anyone tell me how I get rid of this non existant drive and how it got created? This also happened to a removable drive that came with my computer. It originally was 'HP Personal Media Drive(J:) but seemed to rename it'self with the letter L, the J letter taking over another of the drives (card reader). I remedied this by using a restore point from a few days previous but can't use this option for the 'phantom' CD drive as it manifested itself too long ago.

I look forward to hear from anyone who can help.

Regards,
Norman

Hi Norman. All that BOLD type makes it hard to read, but … This is most likely due to some program you installed, like Alcohol 120% or it's ilk. What did you install around the time this happened.

Hi Rich, Thank you for your reply. I haven't installed Alchohol and what's more I don't really know what it's 'ilk' would be either. I don't recall installing any additional programmes recently. Any suggestions? Thanks, Norman

Does this phantom drive show up if you boot to Safe Mode?

Hi Rich, Yes, the drive appears in Windows Explorer when booted up in safe mode. Thanks again. Norman

Okay, one more thing to try. Power down, then disconnect all external devices like printers, flash drives, card readers, so just the computer, mouse, keyboard and display are connected. Power up and see if the drive is gone. If so it's possibly a card reader built into your printer?

Hi Rich, I have no devices connected to my PC. Even the printer is wireless. I have 4 slots built in for card readers but they each have their own drive letter, i.e F, G, H & I. Over to you! Norman

I should also mention that my printer has no card reader though it does have a USB port but no USB drive is attached. Norman

Sorry for the delay, I was over on the Florida west coast visiting my brother who is down from NY for a month. We had a great time.

Back to business … what do you see when you right click on the phantom device and select Properties? Do the same from from Device Manager.

To get to Device Manager, click on Start then Run, type devmgmt.msc and press Enter.

Post the info here or if easier, post a screen capture of the window.

How to capture a screen omage
How to upload an image to your thread

Hi Rich, Lucky you - Florida. It's cold and misrable here in London. Anyway, to business! By the way, I am running Vista, not XP. Attached is a picture of the Properties dialogue box of Drive K as well as Device Manger. I hope this is what you require Regards Norman

Device Manager says you have two optical drives.

• Audials Tunebite CD-R
• HL-DT-ST DVDRW GSA-H30L

In your first post, you only mention one optical drive, so I'm guessing that the Audials Tunebite CD-R is the one that is causing the phantom drive to appear.

Tunebite is a virtual CD burner, so I would say that is where it came from. Did you install this around the time you noticed the drive?

http://tunebite.com/en/audio_video_drm_cop…tion/index.html

Hi Rich, I use Tunebite to convert audio and video files to alternative formats. I honestly can't remember when the additional 'phantom' drive appeared or whether its appearance coincided with my installation of Tunebite. Regards, Norman

I sure that's what it is. If you want to test it, uninstall Tunebites to verify. You can reinstall when done.

Rich, If that's what it is then I need not worry about it. Thanks for your help in this matter and I think we can consider the matter solved. Regards, Norman

Nice to figure out what it is. Take care.