Drive Letter assigned to CD Drive that does not exist
We typically use "F" as the root drive letter for our network access. One of our new Win 7 (64bit) machines has assigned F to a CD drive that does not exist. The two DVD drives are M & N. When you open My Computer it shows F as a CD ROM drive but the drive does not show up in the Disk Manager. I've been into the Registry and F is not linked to a DOS device. I"m not sure where to go now.
June 3rd, 2010 7:10pm

this is the second time i've heard of something like this. i cannot unmark my undeserved answer in that thread. ignore it. that thread is still unresolved. i am still curious about its cause. can you find some phantom device in Device Manager? you might also change the view to Devices by connection then check if possibly it is actually a USB device doing it?
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June 3rd, 2010 8:24pm

Interesting idea. I'll give it a shot & report.
June 3rd, 2010 10:58pm

maybe we've overlooked a much easier approach. can you just right-click it and get into its Properties?
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June 3rd, 2010 11:32pm

Hi, To troubleshoot the issue, please perform the following steps. 1. Open Disk Management and check whether there is any CD-ROM in the list. If so, please right click it and change the drive letter for a test. 2. Temporarily uninstall all CD-burning software or Virtual CD software, such as Nero or Clone CD. 3. Open Device Manager and uninstall all CD-ROMs. If the issue persists, please collect System Information and upload it here for research. Thanks, Novak
June 4th, 2010 8:45am

maybe we've overlooked a much easier approach. can you just right-click it and get into its Properties? When I do that, I just get the same information that comes with the two DVD drives that ARE actually installed in the machine. 1. Open Disk Management and check whether there is any CD-ROM in the list. If so, please right click it and change the drive letter for a test. 2. Temporarily uninstall all CD-burning software or Virtual CD software, such as Nero or Clone CD. 3. Open Device Manager and uninstall all CD-ROMs . I can change drive letters on the DVD drives & the USB drives that are attached via a multi-function printer. This phantom drive does not appear in Disk Management. I uninstalled the two DVD drives that appear in Device Manager, then they reinstalled when Win7 discovered the "new" hardware. The phantom CD F: drive was unaffected. What/how much System Info do you want me to collect?
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June 4th, 2010 6:03pm

are you saying you can put a dvd into the drive (M or N whatever), then also view it from F: ?
June 4th, 2010 6:16pm

No, the M and N drives work properly. When I double click on F, it tells me to insert a disk, but there's no place to insert it!!! If I right click & check properties, they're the same as the DVD drives except it doesn't have the Recording tab
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June 4th, 2010 6:18pm

i am thinking that Novak Wu is on the right track here. do you have any iso file on your hard disk? any iso at all? if so, double-click that iso and see if it mounts into F:. then we'll know what cd software is generating that F: drive.
June 4th, 2010 6:32pm

I DOUBT that there's an iso file on that drive, but I'll check it and report.
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June 4th, 2010 6:41pm

i see you're comfortable with regedit. check this key and see what progid isofile handler it points at. HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.iso another place to look is HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.iso if either of those keys indicate 3rd party software, that's a clue. maybe it has nothing to do with this. but it's something to look into.
June 4th, 2010 7:07pm

I didn't find any unusual 3rd party software there. I'm beginning to suspect one of the USB drive slots that are in the Multi-function printer/scanner (Compact Flash Card) may have somehow become confused into thinking it's a CD-ROM instead of a USB drive
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June 9th, 2010 11:10pm

oh? try plugging in a card there and see. maybe then you'll be able to select a different drive letter for it in Disk Management. or just unplug the scanner, unload its driver, and see if the phantom drive F: goes away.
June 10th, 2010 2:34am

Hi, Please try Grits’s suggestion. If the issue persists, please collect the following information for research. Collect the Microsoft Product Support (MPS) Reports on your computer. ============================================================================== Microsoft Product Support Reports tool is utilized to gather detailed information regarding the current system configuration. The data collected will assist us with fault isolation. a. Download Microsoft Product Support Reports tool from the following Microsoft link, according to your system architecture. http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=CEBF3C7C-7CA5-408F-88B7-F9C79B7306C0&displaylang=en b. Right-click on the downloaded mpsreports_x86.exe or mpsreports_x64.exe, and choose Run as Administrator. c. Agree the License Agreement, and choose This Computer. d. Select General, Internet and Networking, Business Networks, Server Components, and click Next. e. After finishing collecting logs, please choose Save the result to save it to a .CAB file, and send the CAB file to the Workspace below. f. Please upload the Event log to the Skydrive ( www.skydrive.live.com ). Thanks, Novak
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June 10th, 2010 8:46am

I had exactly the same problem. The CD drive did not show up in Device Manager and right-clicking on the drive and selecting properties gave me no clues, and I could not disable it from there either. Then I found the cause: In my case it was PowerISO that had added a virtual CD drive. To remove it I simply right-clicked on a folder, selected PowerISO->Set NUmber of Drives->Disable. Now the Phantom CD Drive is gone. Phew!
January 26th, 2011 9:17am

I had the same problem and my solution was similar to Arminius67's. When I read his post, I realized I had recently installed UltraISO Pro. I uninstalled UltraISO Pro and the phantom drive ceased to appear in My Computer or Windows Explorer.
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September 14th, 2011 11:46am

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