Phantom CD Drive

I have two CD/DVD drives designated K and M but an additional drive,
designated D: (the phantom drive) also shows in Windows explorer. This
drive does not appear elsewhere or at least I can't see it in the
Registry, Device Manager or Computer Management and it does not show
during 'Post'. I have no idea when this phantom drive first appeared
But I think I would have noticed it if it was there when I first
installed Win7 (now 4 or 5 months ago).

While this 'phantom drive' is harmless as far as I can tell I would
like to get rid of it but as I cannot find it, other than in Win
Explorer and in Directory Opus (my preferred File Manager). Does
anyone have a suggestion on how to deal with this?

On Wed, 17 Feb 2010 07:15:41 +0000, Edward W. Thompson
<> wrote:

>I have two CD/DVD drives designated K and M but an additional drive,
>designated D: (the phantom drive) also shows in Windows explorer. This
>drive does not appear elsewhere or at least I can't see it in the
>Registry, Device Manager or Computer Management and it does not show
>during 'Post'. I have no idea when this phantom drive first appeared
>But I think I would have noticed it if it was there when I first
>installed Win7 (now 4 or 5 months ago).
>
>While this 'phantom drive' is harmless as far as I can tell I would
>like to get rid of it but as I cannot find it, other than in Win
>Explorer and in Directory Opus (my preferred File Manager). Does
>anyone have a suggestion on how to deal with this?

Did you install a program that includes configuration of a virtual
drive? Alcohol 120% comes to mind, but there are others.

Edward W. Thompson wrote:

> I have two CD/DVD drives designated K and M but an additional drive,
> designated D: (the phantom drive) also shows in Windows explorer.

Does the phantom drive work as a duplicate of one of the real drives?

Sounds like an additional drive letter has been added for one of them,
look at properties of the real drives in Disk Management, then check
under Drive Letters & Paths (or whatever it's actually called).

I have found the 'problem' program which was 'PowerISO'. I understand
from a Google search (sorry should have done this before I posted)
that 'UltraISO' does the same thing, that is creates a 'phantom' CD
Drive. I have since reverted to MagicISO and no virtual drive to
clutter up Explorer!.

Thanks to all for their suggestions/help

"Edward W. Thompson" <> wrote in message
news:...
> I have two CD/DVD drives designated K and M but an additional drive,
> designated D: (the phantom drive) also shows in Windows explorer. This
> drive does not appear elsewhere or at least I can't see it in the
> Registry, Device Manager or Computer Management and it does not show
> during 'Post'. I have no idea when this phantom drive first appeared
> But I think I would have noticed it if it was there when I first
> installed Win7 (now 4 or 5 months ago).
>
> While this 'phantom drive' is harmless as far as I can tell I would
> like to get rid of it but as I cannot find it, other than in Win
> Explorer and in Directory Opus (my preferred File Manager). Does
> anyone have a suggestion on how to deal with this?

Do you have any Flash card slots built in.

Edward W. Thompson wrote:
> I have found the 'problem' program which was 'PowerISO'. I understand
> from a Google search (sorry should have done this before I posted)
> that 'UltraISO' does the same thing, that is creates a 'phantom' CD
> Drive. I have since reverted to MagicISO and no virtual drive to
> clutter up Explorer!.
>
> Thanks to all for their suggestions/help

Thanks for posting the solution:-))

Edward W. Thompson <> wrote in
news::

> I have found the 'problem' program which was 'PowerISO'. I understand
> from a Google search (sorry should have done this before I posted)
> that 'UltraISO' does the same thing, that is creates a 'phantom' CD
> Drive. I have since reverted to MagicISO and no virtual drive to
> clutter up Explorer!.

You could have set PowerISO to use 0 (zero) virtual drives through the
Explorer PowerISO context menu or in the program options.

Edward W. Thompson <> wrote:

>I have found the 'problem' program which was 'PowerISO'. I understand
>from a Google search (sorry should have done this before I posted)
>that 'UltraISO' does the same thing, that is creates a 'phantom' CD
>Drive. I have since reverted to MagicISO and no virtual drive to
>clutter up Explorer!.


Good idea, since MagicISO is the best, imo.

--
Joel Crump

On Wed, 17 Feb 2010 11:42:24 -0500, Joel <> wrote:

>Edward W. Thompson <> wrote:
>
>>I have found the 'problem' program which was 'PowerISO'. I understand
>>from a Google search (sorry should have done this before I posted)
>>that 'UltraISO' does the same thing, that is creates a 'phantom' CD
>>Drive. I have since reverted to MagicISO and no virtual drive to
>>clutter up Explorer!.
>
>
>Good idea, since MagicISO is the best, imo.

How do they compare to UltraISO? Have you tried that one?

Char Jackson <> wrote:

>>Good idea, since MagicISO is the best, imo.
>
>How do they compare to UltraISO? Have you tried that one?


Interesting - I remember noticing that name in Wikipedia's comparison
chart:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ISO_image_software

.... but it appears to me that unless one needs the specific features
of UltraISO (or another of the competing programs), my comment is
probably valid, since it's based on my personal preference for the
overall design of MagicISO (but nonetheless, merely my opinion). I am
sure, having looked at UltraISO's site now, that it would be my second
choice, though (and thus you've given another great tip).

For straight-up ripping of a CD/DVD-ROM, though, I prefer WinImage.
I'm sure (obviously) that it's functionally no different from the
others for that purpose, but I was just blown away by how cool and
old-school it is, and had to support its developer.

--
Joel Crump