Vista and floppy drive

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Guest

When I click on the "computer" icon the c: drive appears in the window but
the floppy drive (a:) and my 2 cd/DVD drives don't. What can I do so that I
can access these drives without going to the command promt?
 
Tom,

Additional information could be useful. Have the two drives also
disappeared from Device Manager? Also, can you access the drives using
Windows Explorer (under Start, Accessories)? The proper resolution may
depend on those answers.
 
All 3 drives appear in device manager. When I go Start->Accessories->Windows
Explorer, it opens and defaults to Owner->Documents. When I click on
"Computer" Explorer shows only "Hard Disk Drives (1) Local Disk C:" and
"Network Location (1) My Web Sites on MSN".

Suggestions?
 
There is a small arrow to the right of the window, beneath your internal
drives, that will expand the removable drive area to show the installed
removable drives. This is expanded by default. Someone likely clicked on the
arrow and collapsed the area.

--


Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
(For email, remove the obvious from my address)
 
Tom,

For the CD/DVD-ROM drives:

1. Go to Start > Right click My Computer > Manage > Disk Management
2. Check to ensure that the drives are listed and that there is a drive
letter assigned to the drives. If there is no drive letter, right click the
drives (if they are listed) and select "Change". Then, see if you can assign
a drive letter to these drives.

I'm not sure about the floppy. Post back on the results of the above steps.
Also, when did this problem first appear?
 
Followed your suggested steps. In Disk Management C:, D: (CD-ROM 0 DVD) and
E: (CD-ROM 1 DVD) appear, but that's all. No floppy drive, not even showing
the floppy without a letter designation.
Got the computer 5 months ago. Didn't have this problem until about a 3
weeks ago.
- Richard, I tried the arrows. No luck.
 
Tom,

What you found is good. All drives, except the floppy, show up in Disk
Management and they all have a drive letter assigned. The floppy drive isn't
supposed to appear in Disk Management. My floppy shows up in Computer, but
also isn't listed in Disk Management.

OK, it's interesting to know that you had no problem like this until
recently. That fact leaves out any BIOS settings that may not be set
properly. It's possible that the floppy drive isn't enabled in BIOS, but
that shouldn't be the case for your situation.

Frankly, I'm stumped! Your drives show up everywhere except in Computer!!
For now, I have only one suggestion: In Device Manager, right click each
drive and their controllers and select Remove. Reboot and see whether the
drives show up as they should when Windows reboots and reinstalls the drives
and also their controllers. If that step doesn't work, we'll try something
else.

Post back on results.
 
I selected uninstall ()there was no remove option listed) for both the floppy
and the floppy driver, then rebooted. No change when I opened My Computer or
Windows Explorer. I appreciate your help.
 
Tom,

You did what I expected. Uninstall is correct, as it's the same as remove.
I'm running out of ideas, but I can suggest two more things to try:

1. Review an error report that Vista produces: Start > All Programs >
Problem Reports and Solutions. Peruse the report and note any errors
contained in the report. Focus on that part that suggests corrective
solutions for any errors.

2. If you are using a burner program, such as Roxio or Nero, they could be
causing a problem with your CD/DVD-ROM drives, but I don't know how that
would effect the floppy drive. In any case, as a long shot, this same page
her on this forum contains posts about people having their optical drives
disappear. The answers to those posts recommend that some entries in the
registry be removed to correct the problem. Take a look at those posts, and
note the Microsoft KB article that instructs on how to remove the upper and
lower filters.

If we can't resolve your problem here, you could try contacting Microsoft
support directly for some "official" help. You can learn how to do that by
visiting the Microsoft website and looking for instructions on how to obtain
help.

Another alternative is to contact support of the vendor of your computer
(Dell, HP. Compaq, etc.), especially if your computer is still under
warranty. They may or may not provide warranty support, but even if they
won't, it's something to think about.

Anyone else?
 
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