[ The PC Guide | Troubleshooting and Repair Guide | The
Troubleshooting Expert | Troubleshooting Specific Components
| Troubleshooting Hard Disk Drives | Drive
Letter Issues ]
One of my disk volume drive letters isn't accessible any more or isn't visible in
Windows Explorer
Explanation: A drive volume letter appears to be "missing" from the
system. For example, there may be a C:, D: and E: drive but only C: and D: show up in
Windows Explorer.
Diagnosis: Assuming that there isn't a fault with the hard disk itself, the problem
here is likely that the drive letter has been hidden by the operating system for one
reason or another.
Recommendation:
- Make sure that the drive letter really does exist, and there isn't a physical disk
problem. If none of the drive letters of a physical disk are showing up, the problem is
likely with the disk, so troubleshoot it.
- See if the drive letter shows up when you boot to plain DOS. If it does, then this is
likely a hidden drive letter problem.
- If you try to set up a disk with two primary partitions, using something like Partition
Magic (since this cannot be done with normal partitioning software like FDISK) then one of
the partitions will be hidden when you boot up.
- If you've installed the "TweakUI" applet (part of Microsoft's
"PowerToys" add-on for Windows 95) then you should open it and look under the
"My Computer" tab. You will find a checkbox for every drive letter, which lets
you hide that drive from the "My Computer" display and the Windows Explorer.
Make sure nothing is being hidden here.
- If you are using disk compression, and you decided to compress all or most of the host
drive, then the operating system may hide the host drive letter (since it would be full
from containing the compressed volume, and therefore not useful). Compression software can
also play tricks such as remapping or changing drive letters. You can unhide a hidden
compressed volume host disk by running the compression software utility, which is normally
called DriveSpace if you are using Microsoft's compression facilities.
Home - Search
- Topics - Up
|