My CD-Rom's are messed up in the registry. How do I fix that?

A

anthropas

n00b
Joined
May 5, 2003
Messages
24
Hi All,

I installed a USB 2.0 Digital Camera memory card reader the other day and it totally hosed my system. Windows identified at as about 3 or 4 removable drives instead of just one. Well anyway, for some reason after plugging it in, my CD-Rom and CD-Burner were just gone from Explorer and My Computer. So I checked my device manager which shows them both being listed but with exclamation points by them indicating a problem. The error message says that their information/driver is messed up in the registry. I tried uninstalling and reinstalling them, but it doesn't help, they're still messed up in the registry. I've never messed with the registry in my life. I build my own machines, but was never brave enough to play in the registry for fearing of hosing my machines. How can I fix this problem or do I need to reformat? I keep my C: drive to a bare minimum, so reformatting isn't the worst, but I hate downloading and installing all those damn WinXP updates. It takes forever even with DSL! Any help is appreciated.

Thanks,

Anthropas
 
Go into drive management in the console and change the drives around to be what you want.
 
A similiar thing happened to me, did you install any adaptec cd creator software, also if you look in your device manager, are the devices still there, and is there an error code? If there is an error code like Code 19 or something, put that code into a search at the microsoft knowledge base, a way to fix it should come up, you might have to edit the registry.
 
Both of my CD-Rom's are still present in my Device Manager, but they have the error exclamation marks by them and yes, Error 19 is the error it has. It recomends I use the troubleshooter, so I give that a try adn it just tells me to uninstal and reinstal the CD-Roms. So I uninstal them and reboot and windowns finds them, but it doesn't fix the problem. They still show the error 19 saying their information in the registry is messed up. Like I said earlier. I've never messed with the registry before and I'll confess I don't even know how to access in WinXp. I've never used programs like Reg Edit before either. Any tips would be apprecaited. Or should a guy like me just reformat? I'm just afraid I'm going to reformat and plug in my new Memory Card reader and the same problem will happen again. Anyway ever have a external USB device affect CD-Rom's before?

Anthropas
 
I had similar trouble with my internal card reader. It installs 4 removable drives - it starts the lettering sequence with the first available drive letter. Then the removable drive letters are sequential, regardless if some of the following letters are used already or not.

I dont suppose you have System Restore enabled? If you do, you can restore to an earlier check point. Disconnect the card reader before doing so, or you will be back at square 1. If you get this far, leave the card reader out, and make sure your drive letters are all in sequence (i.e. C,D,E), then install the card reader (F,G,H,I)
 
Ok, thanks for all the help so far guys, but time to show my newbieness here. Which I hate dong since I've been building machines since 96. I'm just not a software guy whatsoever though. Where do I look to see if I have system restore enabled, and what exactly does it do or how would I use it.

Second question is, I read that URL to the site that gave registry fixes and it was like another language to me. I don't have any adaptec software on my machine, I use Nero, but I think what happened was that the 4 new drive letters the card reader installed overwrote my two CD-Rom drive letters causing their malfunction in the registry. But I have no idea what lower and upper filters are or how to remove them or even how or where to bring up a registry screen in XP. I'm pretty much self taught on computers and haven't had the need to poke in the registry much.

Third question is, if you drive letters aren't sequential, is there a way to make them sequestial? I have a 120gb drive divided into 4 partitions and then 2 CD-Rom's. I don't remember if they weren't sequential though. If I reformat and shouldn't they be sequential automatically, and if they're not how does one fix that?

Thanks,

Anthropas
 
If you are getting error code 19 try using this link to help solve the problem. This is what helped me, it sounds like you have a very similiar problem.


http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;314060

Dont be scared, just run regedit and follow the step by step instrutions, all you have to do is delete a few files, and you're set. The drives should come back on reboot.
 
Ok, so I think I'm starting to get it now, but I need a little help with the lingo. What exactly is a registry Key? And am I deleting the whole Key or lines in the key? Cause the instructions in that link were more clear, but it just said locate the key then go to edit and delete. That makes it sound like I'm deleting the whole key. I imagined I'd just be highlighting the lines that say upper and lower filters and then hitting delete. I must be missing something or not understanding the lingo because these instructions don't speak to the newbie in me too clearly. Also I'm assuming I get access to the registry by giong to start, run, then doing the regedit.exe thing right?

Anthropas
 
you've got it right, just delete where it says, "upper filters" or "lower filters" where it tells you to. And yes go to start/run/ to run the regedit.
 
Doesn't matter if you use Adaptec - the fix is the same if your drrives are just plain missing. http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;320553&Product=winxp

System Restore can be found at START>PROGRAMS>ACCESSORIES>SYSTEM TOOLS>SYSTEM RESTORE . Choose the restore option - the dates in bold are valid restore points. Click one and reboot. You can change back if you dont like it.

As far as deleting the key, just right-click on the little "ab" icon to the left of the word UpperFilters (or LowerFilters) and choose DELETE. Leave the rest there, including the folder it is in.

As for changing drive letters, put a CD in the drive, then right click on MY COMPUTER, and choose MANAGE. Expand STORAGE, then DISK MANAGEMENT. Right click on the drive and choose CHANGE DRIVE LETTERS AND PATHS.

dog
 
Thanks for the help guys. I now feel confident that I can handle this. I just needed it in rookie terms. I'll give it a try and report back after I've got it working or after I've thrown it out the window;)

Anthropas
 
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