Share via

Disconnected (removed) external hard drive still in explorer and using drive letter - how to remove?

Anonymous
2012-02-28T13:51:10+00:00

Dear community,

I recently removed an external harddrive from my windows 7 laptop, I guess it was not ready to "savely remove" it at that point. The hard drive itself is fine, but the icon stayed in windows explorer since it's disconnected. I manually assigned the driveletter Q to the drive before, and it still appears as that since this disconnect. When i click it, of course there is an error ("Q is not accessible. Access denied"). When I plug in the hard drive it is listed under another letter (E), the "ghost" drive at Q is not affected by this at all.

It (the ghost drive) does not appear in the computer manager/drive management, and I also can not reassign the letter Q to the original harddrive (or any other - it's not in the list!).

I would like to use the letter Q again for the hard drive (that my file paths and associations stay consistent), and want to get rid of the ghost drive. Any ideas how to achieve that?

Thanks in advance,

Philipp

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Devices and drivers

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

0 comments

Answer accepted by question author

Anonymous
2012-03-21T14:48:04+00:00

FYI

It's great that the problem fixed itself, but for general reference or for others who may run into ii, the way to resolve a 'stuck or ghost share' is to remove it's entry in the registry key below and then log off and on or reboot.  This problem is relatively rare, but comes up occasionally and does not always fix itself.

(Note that drive letter Q specifically is used by Office Click to Run and sometimes mysteriously appears for that reason, unlike your situation.)

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\MountPoints2]

Was this answer helpful?

4 people found this answer helpful.
0 comments

6 additional answers

Sort by: Most helpful
Most helpful Newest Oldest
  1. Anonymous
    2012-03-21T11:52:15+00:00

    Hi,

    Glad to know that the issue is Resolved.

    Do visit Microsoft Answers site if you have any issues on the computer. We will be glad to assist you.

    Was this answer helpful?

    1 person found this answer helpful.
    0 comments
  2. Anonymous
    2012-03-03T09:40:18+00:00

    Hi  

    Check if you experience the issue in ‘Safe mode’;

    How to start computer in ‘Safe mode’ refer to the following link:

    http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Start-your-computer-in-safe-mode

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  3. Anonymous
    2012-03-02T10:50:09+00:00

    Hi,

    Method 1 I of course already tried before and did not help.

    Method 2 sounds not very logical to me, but I tried and it didn't help either. It must be wrong some disconnecting issue, and not a virus.

    Thanks a lot for your ideas anyhow!

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  4. Anonymous
    2012-02-29T06:41:00+00:00

    Hi,

    ·         Which security software is installed on the computer?

    You may try the following methods and check if it helps.

    Method 1: Try connecting the external hard drive back to the computer and try to safely remove it from the computer.

    Method 2: Run virus scan

    You can download Microsoft Safety scanner, which provides on-demand scanning, and helps remove viruses, spyware, and other malicious software. It works with your existing antivirus software.

    Refer to the link provided below to download Microsoft Safety scanner on the system.

    http://www.microsoft.com/security/scanner/en-us/default.aspx

    Note:

    The Microsoft Safety Scanner expires 10 days after being downloaded. To rerun a scan with the latest anti-malware definitions, download and run the Microsoft Safety Scanner again.

    Disclaimer:

    Any data files that are infected may be cleaned by deleting the file entirely, which means there is a potential for data loss.

    Hope it helps.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments