[RESOLVED] New Drive Letter Appears in My Computer

[PinguJohn]

I have a hard drive C:, a 3 1/2" floppy drive A:, a DVD ROM drive D:, and a DVD RW drive E:

Initially these all show up in My Computer as:-

Under 'Hard Disk Drives' - Local Disk C:
Under 'Devices with Removable Storage' - 3 1/2" Floppy A:, DVD Drive D:, DVD-RAM Drive E:

However, after a while a new drive letter F: appears under 'Devices with Removable Storage' as CD Drive F:
Drive letter F: does not appear in Disk Management.

I have no idea what this new drive is and if I try to open it, I get the message "Please insert a disk into drive F:"

Any help as to why this occurs and a solution would be appreciated.

[SpywareDr]

What USB devices are connected?

[PinguJohn]

USB devices connected:-

Canon PIXMA iP4850 Printer
CanoScan 4400F Scanner
Netgear WNA1100 N150 Wireless USB Adapter
Mouse

[Train]

Does the printer have a card reader? Id yes, it will show up as a drive letter as will the camera.

[PinguJohn]

Neither the printer or the scanner has a card reader.

This problem has only recently occurred and I have had the computer for years.

[Train]

To read the card in camera, when hooked to the computer, it acts like a card reader. Anyway my camera is given a letter. Both camera.

[Welshjim]

PinguJohn--
Does the new drive letter appear on boot? If so what devices are ON when you boot? If not, does the new drive letter appear only when you turn some device ON?
For example my printer appears as a drive only when I turn it ON.

[PinguJohn]

The new drive letter does not appear on boot, neither does it appear when I turn the printer on. The scanner is always on.

It appears when I access or right click the DVD ROM drive D:, or the DVD RW drive E:

It also appears if I go into Disk Management.

[SpywareDr]

This problem has only recently occurred and I have had the computer for years.

Have you tried using Windows' "System Restore" to roll Windows back to a previous state when your computer was functioning correctly?

• Microsoft.com > System Restore > XP

System Restore helps you restore your computer's system files to an earlier point in time. It's a way to undo system changes to your computer without affecting your personal files, such as e-mail, documents, or photos.

[PinguJohn]

Did a System Restore to over a week ago and everything now appears fine.

Thanks for all your help.

[SpywareDr]

Good to hear it was such an easy fix. Thanks for letting us know.

[PinguJohn]

I'm glad that System Restore solved the problem, although I still don't know what caused the problem in the first place.

[SuperSparks]

A system file got corrupted, most likely. It only takes a single bit to get flipped, and there can be many reasons for that happening.