'My Computer' icons

[tvaddict817]

I am running Windows XP Pro. I just reinstalled Windows a few days ago because I was having problems with the icons in 'My Computer'. This problem has come back and I have no idea why. Check out the attached picture. Basically, my DVD drives and CD-RW drive are all being recognized as CD drives and also, there is no seperation lines between any icons like there should be. I tried System Restore, but it told me that no changes had been made to my system (yeah right). If anyone can help me with this, I would appreciate it.

EDIT: The problem doesn't surface until after a few days. If anyone wants a list of what all I have installed, let me know and I'll type it up.

[Jim Morrison]

I bet You have Daemon Tools Installed Dont YOu?
If you do theres nothing wrong with puter.

[OmNIpOTentFluX]

There is nothing wrong that I can see from your picture.

If you wanted to change the look of your icons (not the icons themselves) , you could have simply

1) in my computer, right click anywhere on the blank white background.
2) select ''view' on the menu
3) and over to details.
(generally its nice to see your free/used space)

if you also wanted them to be grouped or seperated by lines....

1) right click the white background again
2) go down to 'arrange icons by'
3) and go down to 'show in groups' (leave a check mark next to it)
4) do steps 1-2 again, then select 'type' (makes a black dot next to it)


feel free to make any personalizations other than i mentioned, thats just how I like to see things. If this does't fix things, or was not what you intended, I'm not sure of anything else you disired. And yes those cd/dvd drives could be the result of daemon-tools, alcohol 120, or any other cd burning program and/or virtual cd drive emulator.

my 10 cents
~flux

[ferrarimodena360]

OmNIpOTentFluX

i second what he says

very good 1st post
welcome to zp

[tvaddict817]

I don't have Daemon tools, but I do have Nero Image Drive. Does all drive image software do this? Thanks for the suggestion OmNIpOTentFluX, but I'd really like them back the way they started out which seems impossible. I guess I'll just reinstall Windows again if I want them back the way they were.

[ferrarimodena360]

yea image drive softwares can do this...i had problem with alcohol.....try uninstalling

[cpugeniusmv]

right click, arrange icons by Type, and also Show in Groups.

make sure that under View you are set to Tiles.

[tvaddict817]

Thanks cpugeniusmv. That is how I wanted my icons to be layed out. Unfortunately, my drives are still being recognized as CD drives and I've found that now my autorun consists of only opening the folder of the inserted disc despite it being set to ask every time. I thought maybe I could get it to work right if I updated the drivers, but the drives are plug and play. I'm going to disconnect and reconnect the drives and see what happens. Any other suggestions are welcome.

[phalkon30]

To check your autoplay settings, right click on the drive and go to properties, then autoplay.

Obviously either you changed a setting, or another program did. If you start from scratch again. Install one program at a time. Reboot. Did it change? Keep going until you find the culprit.

[ferrarimodena360]

if nuthing works out plz uninstall image software, i am think this is what is wrong

in alcohol the option of : Ignore Media type- made any cd-rw unrecognisable, it was being recognised as a normal cd-rom

Hope it works

[CompuGeek]

cpugeniusmv,

I see in your screenshot you call your pr0n "Documents" now, eh?

:hole

[cpugeniusmv]

cpugeniusmv,

I see in your screenshot you call your pr0n "Documents" now, eh?

:hole
shhhhhhhh :)

[begoodbebad]

There was a strange and disturbing noise in the distance....At first I thought I was hallucinating...then I realised.....it's the ghost of Krell laughing his ass off

[tvaddict817]

if nuthing works out plz uninstall image software, i am think this is what is wrong

in alcohol the option of : Ignore Media type- made any cd-rw unrecognisable, it was being recognised as a normal cd-rom

Hope it works

I disabled Nero Image Drive, uninstalled Nero completely, and restarted with no change. Phalkon30, the autorun settings are set to always ask but Windows doesn't follow its own rules. I disconnected the drives and then plugged them back in later with no change.

There was a strange and disturbing noise in the distance....At first I thought I was hallucinating...then I realised.....it's the ghost of Krell laughing his ass off

Then catch that ghost and tell him to help me!!! Krell's ghost will do just as well as Krell; I'm not picky.

[begoodbebad]

I disabled Nero Image Drive, uninstalled Nero completely, and restarted with no change. Phalkon30, the autorun settings are set to always ask but Windows doesn't follow its own rules. I disconnected the drives and then plugged them back in later with no change.



Then catch that ghost and tell him to help me!!! Krell's ghost will do just as well as Krell; I'm not picky.

I was just about to do that Krell thing and really jump on you and demand, insist and otherwise compel you to supply full details of your OS, drive controllers, software, hardware etc etc. I was really looking forward to getting very very heavy but then I remembered....I don't know if I l know the answer.....but I think I do because the same thing happened to me. I have since reinstalled due to new motherboard and the "problem" is gone. The big differences between then and now are




I no longer have Alcohol 120% drive emulation software installed (but now I think of it....I soon will he he) but I do have Nero Image drive working as before so it isn't a Nero issue.
previously my ASPI was dirty & corrupted, now it is nice and clean and fresh and smells all piny and zesty lemony. mmmm.


The "arrange in groups thing" I assume you have done. So next you need to find out about your ASPI. If you still have Nero installed run the info tool (Start>All programs>Nero>Nero Toolkit>Nero Info Tool). This will tell you all sorts of shit including if you have ASPI installed (as it's not strictly needed in 2000/XP) and if so whether it is corrupt. Also you might have the nasty smelly Adaptec ASPI and not the happy invigorating Mary Poppins Certified Wholesome SupercalifragilisticASPIalidocious version* from Ahead Nero....it's a free download btw.


*Now With Extra Teutonic Efficiency. Hurry While Stocks Last!

[begoodbebad]

quick follow up question/pointer: I notice you have 5 drives, 2 HDD and three optical drives. This suggests that you either have one HDD which you have partitioned, or you have installed in a PCI slot an IDE or RAID controller. If you have a PCI IDE/RAID card with rw optical drives attached you are going to have plenty of weird and inconsistent behaviour and even drives made useless. There is a very good reason for this but I have no idea what it is. Despite what manufacturers claim, PCI IDE/RAID controllers are really only suitable for HDDs and for CD/DVD ROMs, not writers. The f***ers. So you might need to put all your optical drives on the original motherboard IDE slots. It's fine to have 2 writers on the same controller as long as you don't copy on the fly from one to the other.edit:also don't use both at same time for any writing. My PC has three HDDs (sometimes 4) and 2 RWs (sometimes a DVD-ROM too) so i've been right through this subject and believe me, optical RWs don't work right on PCI drive controllers. I broke 3 drives in one week learning this the hard way. Warranties are cool.

[CompuGeek]

Optical drives don't work on PCI IDE controllers because they aren't ATAPI (http://isp.webopedia.com/TERM/A/ATAPI.html) compliant. Most of them "sort of" support ATAPI and it usually damages either the controller or the drive permanently.

[begoodbebad]

Optical drives don't work on PCI IDE controllers because they aren't ATAPI (http://isp.webopedia.com/TERM/A/ATAPI.html) compliant. Most of them "sort of" support ATAPI and it usually damages either the controller or the drive permanently.

I thought an ATAPI interface supported optical drives by definition, after all the ATAPI standard was developed for CD ROMS. And if ATAPI isn't an interface that supports optical then what is it? What happened?

[CompuGeek]

I'm not an expert, but the way I understand it is that ATAPI is a superset of EIDE (ATA-2). So a controller that just supports plain vanilla IDE only partially supports ATAPI if at all.

[begoodbebad]

I'm not an expert, but the way I understand it is that ATAPI is a superset of EIDE (ATA-2). So a controller that just supports plain vanilla IDE only partially supports ATAPI if at all.

I have a ATA 133/RAID controller for PCI, it specifically supports ATAPI devices but......actually in practise it doesn't. It should but it doesn't. Same thing with an older Promise ATA 100 Card. Makes me think the problem is more to do with the PCI bus as it seems to be a universal thing...or does someone know dfferent? Maybe it only really works with tape. Naturally it's all fine with HDDs.

[CompuGeek]

Maybe they lie if they say it supports ATAPI devices?

[shawners]

buying a new pc solves most problems with your current computer.

[tvaddict817]

begoodbebad- About the ASPI. I do have the adaptec version and not the nero one. Can I just put the nero one on top of the adaptec one or do I need to get rid of the Adaptec one?

quick follow up question/pointer: I notice you have 5 drives, 2 HDD and three optical drives. This suggests that you either have one HDD which you have partitioned, or you have installed in a PCI slot an IDE or RAID controller. If you have a PCI IDE/RAID card with rw optical drives attached you are going to have plenty of weird and inconsistent behaviour and even drives made useless. There is a very good reason for this but I have no idea what it is. Despite what manufacturers claim, PCI IDE/RAID controllers are really only suitable for HDDs and for CD/DVD ROMs, not writers. The f***ers. So you might need to put all your optical drives on the original motherboard IDE slots. It's fine to have 2 writers on the same controller as long as you don't copy on the fly from one to the other.edit:also don't use both at same time for any writing. My PC has three HDDs (sometimes 4) and 2 RWs (sometimes a DVD-ROM too) so i've been right through this subject and believe me, optical RWs don't work right on PCI drive controllers. I broke 3 drives in one week learning this the hard way. Warranties are cool.

I didn't understand all of that or all of the subsequent posts but my main hard drive is SATA and my backup drive is PATA. My PATA hard drive is on the master ATA cable by itself and my CD-RW drive and DVD drive are on the slave cable togather. The other DVD drive is virtual.

buying a new pc solves most problems with your current computer.

Why would I buy a new PC for software issues? Anyway, my PC right now can do everthing I want it to and I don't plan on buying a new computer anytime soon.

[begoodbebad]

begoodbebad- About the ASPI. I do have the adaptec version and not the nero one. Can I just put the nero one on top of the adaptec one or do I need to get rid of the Adaptec one?



I didn't understand all of that or all of the subsequent posts but my main hard drive is SATA and my backup drive is PATA. My PATA hard drive is on the master ATA cable by itself and my CD-RW drive and DVD drive are on the slave cable togather. The other DVD drive is virtual.



Why would I buy a new PC for software issues? Anyway, my PC right now can do everthing I want it to and I don't plan on buying a new computer anytime soon.

It's a little difficult to advise because you are not exactly forthcoming with info about your PC and what progress you have or haven't made.

Suddenly we find out one of your drives is virtual. So are you talking about a Nero Image Drive or do you have other emulation/virtual drive software? Answer please, maybe just list all the CD/DVD burning/copying/emulation/virtual applications installed.

Did you fix the way your drives are displayed in groups so it's how you want it? Answer please.

Your ASPI layer, is it corrupt or showing as working properly? Answer please.

I assume you re-installed Nero to check the ASPI with the info tool. Is this correct? Answer please.

Just trying to get some basic facts, or it's like the near sighted leading the astigmatic slowly to disaster.....


btw Shawners is kidding, you are young but you will learn.

[tvaddict817]

It's a little difficult to advise because you are not exactly forthcoming with info about your PC and what progress you have or haven't made.

Suddenly we find out one of your drives is virtual. So are you talking about a Nero Image Drive or do you have other emulation/virtual drive software? Answer please, maybe just list all the CD/DVD burning/copying/emulation/virtual applications installed.

Did you fix the way your drives are displayed in groups so it's how you want it? Answer please.

Your ASPI layer, is it corrupt or showing as working properly? Answer please.

I assume you re-installed Nero to check the ASPI with the info tool. Is this correct? Answer please.

Just trying to get some basic facts, or it's like the near sighted leading the astigmatic slowly to disaster.....


btw Shawners is kidding, you are young but you will learn.

Sorry, I just wasn't thinking when I was first describing the problem to you guys. I have only had Nero Image Drive installed and never installed any other drive emulation software so that virtual drive was created using Nero Image Drive. Nero 6.3 is also the only burning software I have ever installed. I did get the icons in My Computer to display in the proper groups. I reinstalled Nero and ran the info tool like you suggested and it tells me that the system ASPI is not installed but that Nero ASPI is installed and working properly so I guess I don't have the Adaptec one (I must have installed it before my last reformat). Hope this is enough info. Thanks for the quick responses. Also, glad to hear shawners was just kidding; I was really hoping that he wasn't that stupid.

[begoodbebad]

you have Nero aspi....or possibly adaptec...or both...do you know for sure???? Go back to the Nero Info Tool and run it. Click on the ASPI tab. Toggle between system aspi and Nero aspi and any other aspi that pops up.....All this stuff is not just to look nice...read it! If you have Nero aspi and adaptec/system aspi installed you might want to delete one or the other, particularly if aspi is corrupt. Your choice. There's no uninstaller, just find the files and back up and delete (the right ones). Reboot and see what happens.
I'm still curious what software you have...thinking about Creative products....soundblaster/audigy? Creative Disc Detector? If I was you I would save the Info Tool output as a txt and have a good look at what CD related software and drivers are on the system, the answer has to be in there. But it's 0530 and I'm going to bed (evil daylight is making me cower, must hide)

[tvaddict817]

Maybe when you get some sleep and re-read my last post will realize what I'm saying. I do not have any ASPI on my computer except for the Nero one. A system one was listed but it says that it is not installed. Anyway, I attached a copy of the Info Tool Report if you have the time to read it.

[begoodbebad]

Maybe when you get some sleep and re-read my last post will realize what I'm saying. I do not have any ASPI on my computer except for the Nero one. A system one was listed but it says that it is not installed. Anyway, I attached a copy of the Info Tool Report if you have the time to read it.

I wish you'd done that yesterday :;)


It looks fine, like a good clean install. I'm strictly into guesswork now but three possibilities present themselves:
Install Adaptec aspi, reboot and see if it makes any difference
Check for any known issues with your Motherboard, have a look at any BIOS updates to see what they include
buy a new PC, it solves most problems with your computer, just ask Shawners

[CompuGeek]

Format C: fixes more problems than buying a new computer.

[begoodbebad]

where's Kyle when he's needed most?