Phantom Drive? (WinXP-SP-2)

**CWBillow** · 2006-12-09 02:38

My Computer is showing me to have a "J" Virtual CD drive... but I don't *have* a J drive.

I have 2 CD drive, H & I, and they are both showing as well. I checked to see if this was a network drive, but it isn't.

How can I find this drive, which is in fact showing as "0" used and "0" free, and remove it?

Regards,
Chuck Billow

**HansV** · 2006-12-09 08:37

Is it a duplicate of your H or I drive? You can test this by inserting a disk in the H: drive, then compare H: and J:. Similar for the I: drive.

**CWBillow** · 2006-12-09 08:52

Hans:

No, the J: remains at 0/0 even with a CD in (either) of the "real" cd drives.

Regards,
Chuck Billow

**HansV** · 2006-12-09 09:04

You could try clearing the check box for the J: drive in the My Computer > Drives section of TweakUI XP.

**bigaldoc** · 2006-12-09 11:07

Chuck, you said "virtual drive" and I'm curious whether that could be what we used to call a RAM drive? Maybe something you've done lately has created one and didn't let it go when you rebooted. Have you looked at it with one of the informational utilities like SIW or Belarc Advisor to see what they say about your "hardware"? I hardly ever use My Computer to look at my drives, but on my machine, either with My Computer or Windows Explorer I see titles like the attached. If you don't mind doing so, could you post a cropped (or disguised!) screenshot of what you're seeing?

**DaveA** · 2006-12-09 15:52

I am running Roxio CD DVD Creator and it has a "Disc Image Loader". I use it to load "ISO" files so I can burn them to a CD or DVD or even just expand them and copy to my hard drive. A lot of "Beta" software is downloaded as ISO files. The following is from the Help of the Disc Image Loader.
This drive appears to be another DVD Burner (H Drive) see attachment.

Welcome to Disc Image Loader
Disc Image Loader lets you create emulated drives and load disc image files to emulated drives. An emulated drive is a virtual device that reads disc image files just as like a physical disc drive would read a disc. Emulated drives are sometimes called

**CWBillow** · 2006-12-09 19:18

Al/Hans:

I could/did turn it off in TweakUI, but turned it back on for the image. I've restarted, and it's still there. I maybe/probably have something running that does this... I dunno. I might not have noticed it except that I'm getting a message when I start up VMware about a CD drive with nothing in it, and trying to cure that showed this. And that message is just in the last couple days, and I cannot think of what I've done (Lord only knows) to cause it.

I mean, I hardly ever change or do anything new or different to my machine, so I can't imagine what could have opened the door for this type of occurrence!

Regards,
Chuck Billow

**CWBillow** · 2006-12-09 19:27

Hans/Al/Dave:

Found it... Dave it was your post that triggered it because I have a Virtual CD (maker) program, and it loads that will then be used as the CD drive when operational. If not being used, it (obviously) just hangs around and waits. Floppy A can cause the same thing if configured as "active".

Sorry for the bother guys...

Regards,
Chuck Billow

**bigaldoc** · 2006-12-09 20:19

Just in case anyone ever asks (or searches the Lounge), do you mind telling us what this virtual CD program name is (a link would be nice too)?

**CWBillow** · 2006-12-09 20:38

Sointenly Al:

It's called, quaintly enough VirtualDrive, and it's put out by Farstone

Great tool... very handy in CD/DVD management.

Regards,
Chuck

**JohnGray** · 2006-12-10 10:51

<hr>Great tool... very handy in CD/DVD management.<hr>

Rather less great if you forget you've got it?...

John

**CWBillow** · 2006-12-10 10:57

All right for you, mister meany ...

It's so good, that I'd forgotten it wa there, even while using it. Near-transparent. But it surely does come in handy...

That and my VMware are close companions as I try to absorb SUSE...

Regards,
Chuck Billow

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