Disconnected External USB 2.0 Drive Error

[Gorphus]

I have an external usb 2.0 hard drive that I use for data storage on my Compaq Armada M700 running WinXP Pro. With the drive disconnected if I try to either install or uninstall an application, I get an error message telling me that drive e:\ is not found. Neither the install or uninstall will complete until I connect the drive. This drive is not used for installing applications on, simply file storage. Any suggestions on resolving this besides reinstalling Windows??

Gorphus

 

[garebo]

This may seem stupid, but i have to ask. Have you rebooted after removing the external usb drive?
When you reboot windows should remove the drive letter.

 

[sysadminguru]

I have ran in to this with Thumb Drives and external HDD
when you plug it in both act as a system drive so you can't just unplug it or the drive letter will remain and the OS will error
you have to go to the little icon on the toolbar lower right (has a little green arrow)to safely remove hardware
but first you will have to plug in the device in question then double click on the icon and remove the device.
this should remove the drive letter if not then reboot.

 

[garebo]

Yes, I have found that most external usb drives act the same as a hard drive, others act more like a cdrom type of drive.

If you have the unit disconnected and you reboot, or turn the computer off and then back on, doesnt the problem go away at that point?



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