[RESOLVED] How to remove orphaned drive letters...

[mcseguy9]

I have a computer that has a driver labeled removable drive but it's not connected to anything. It's like it remained after a thumb drive was plugged in and than removed. It's very strange. I can't figure out how to get rid of it. When you double click on it you get prompted to insert a disk, kind of like what happens when you double click the A: drive and it's empty. Any suggestions?

[Steve R Jones]

Does the machine have a built in card reader?
I have an HP machine that has a 4 card reader device and it reserves 4 driver letters like you described.

[mcseguy9]

Nope, it doesn't. However, he does have a Kodak camera that he occasionally plugs into his PC so maybe that's it. I'll check into this.

[SuperSparks]

Have a look in Control Panel>Administrative Tools>Computer Management>Disk Management (or Start>Run>diskmgmt.msc), and tell us what it reports the status of the drive as in there please. Posting a screenshot would be ideal.

[mcseguy9]

Will do.

[mcseguy9]

Here are some pics of both My Computer so you can see how that looks (the I: drive is the only local drive that doesn't have something connected to the PC for it to be referencing) and Disk Management.

[SuperSparks]

Have a look in the Notificvation Area, and see if there is an icon for "Safely remove hardware". If there is, double-click on it and try removing the I: drive.

[mcseguy9]

Where is the notification area? Are you referring to the icon by the clock in the system tray?

[SuperSparks]

Yes indeed.

[mcseguy9]

That did it. It was an Epson Stylus Storage USB device. I chose to stop it and the I: drive disappeared. Sometimes I wonder why I can't think of something so simple. I always have to make it harder than it is...

[SuperSparks]

Well it didn't come to me immediately either

I'm glad that you got it all sorted out