Opus won't drop a drive letter for a removable drive

Help & Support
21

I hope you'll also take away the thought that maybe Opus isn't responsible for all problems you may encounter :slight_smile:

22

The fact that I post replies here show my affection. Dopus is really a great tool, and I am reluctant to say goodbye to it.

23

PC Tools' solution, which I haven't tried yet ...

[b]This may be due to a conflict between Spyware Doctor's kernel driver and that of an AntiVirus or other program.

Could you please perform the following steps which will likely resolve the problem.

Restart the Computer in Safe Mode:

  1. Click on the Start button. The Start menu will appear.
  2. Select ''Shut Down'' from the menu (''Turn off Computer'' in XP).
    The 'Shut Down Windows' dialog box will appear.
  3. Select ''Shut down'' (or, ''Turn Off'' in XP) and click the Yes (or OK) button.
  4. When the computer starts back up, begin immediately by pressing the F8 key repeatedly until the Windows Startup menu appears with various options.
  5. By using the up and down arrow keys on the keyboard, select 'Safe Mode'.
    Do not select 'Safe Mode with networking' or any other modes.
  6. Login to your account (if asked).
  7. Wait and eventually Windows will start in Safe Mode.
  8. Delete the file 'ikhlayer.sys' from c:\windows\system32\drivers\
  9. Restart your computer[/b]
24

You might be able to do this instead of deleting the file, which is a few less steps and only one reboot instead of two (assuming it works!):

From this thread: wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=117336

A Google search on ikhlayer.sys reveals other potential problems which can be solved by removing that component of Spyware Doctor. (e.g. Not being able to run chkdsk or defrag tools during boot.)

I guess this is getting a bit off topic now, but I figure a few Opus users are experiencing this problem so the info above might be helpful even if it's not Opus related.

25

I've tried both of the above methods, and neither have solved my problem. Did anyone else have any luck?

Dave C

26

Maybe the Spyware Doctor people can help out. They're bound to know more than anyone here.

27

Hi,

I posted Spyware's suggested solution, see above in bold.

I just deleted the program. There are alternatives that work fine too.

Spyware will solve it hopefully, this problem is too annoying to ignore.

Martien

28

This is great :smiley: - I have had exactly this annoying problem and have just followed nudel's revised process, namely:[quote]Start -> Run -> compmgmt.msc -> Device manager -> View : check "Show hidden devices" -> Kernel Anti-Spyware Driver : right mouse click : DISABLE[/quote] and it has worked fine for me.

Rebooted and then just plugged in my USB stick (had to use Disk Management to add the drive the drive and allocate a drive letter as it didn't have a drive letter - a consequence I think of all the problems I had yesterday with drive letters being left lying around) and it then displayed OK. Dismounted it via 'Safely Remove Hardware' and drive disappeared. Unplugged the USB stick and plugged it in again and it remounted successfully with the just used drive letter. :smiley:

29

I tried this as well, and it does not work for me ... ... ...

30

Why not just uninstall it altogether? When an anti-spyware program causes more problems than the spyware it is meant to protect you against, it's time to let it go :slight_smile:

31

Agree! Although "prize winning" according to many PC magazines, this program really sucks, so I removed it some days ago, leaving me with the question: what has Spyware Doctor done for me lately?

32

Most, if not all, software "prizes" are meaningless.

Look at the most "prestigious" of them - the Shareware Industry Association awards. WinZip has won it every year since about 1785. I mean, it's just a zip program guys - get over it!

Such things are just a big boys club where people get together to pat each other on the back once in a while :slight_smile:

33

I see DOpus has won a few prizes prestigiously displayed on the GP Software front page... :wink:

Although, don't get me wrong: I think DOpus deserves it... :smiley:

Marcel

ps. sorry for the off-topic banter. I'll shut up now.

34

Spyware Doctor appear to have fixed the problem with an upgrade that came out today.

Dave C

35

AHhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Why people use bad antispyware is a mystery!

With the amount of time we have wasted on chasing thse fake drive icons we could have added something useful!

36

[quote="jon"]Y
But the underlying problem - that causes the drive letter duplication in the first place - is something else and you will need to track that down yourself.[/quote]

This is precisely the problem I am facing. After 9installing Opus 8 , two ofmy external USB drives are showing up twice but with differenmt letters.

Have the causes of this been identified as I am pretty sure this is related to Opus .

Brian

37

They were identified as being caused by something other than Opus which was confirmed when people reproduced the problem when Opus wasn't running; confirmed again when people who didn't have Opus but did have Spyware Doctor saw the problem; confirmed again when Spyware Doctor released a fix for the problem.

I don't know if there are other programs which may trigger the problem but, at least in all cases so far, Opus wasn't the trigger. Opus revealed the symptoms of the problem, since it showed the old drive letters as well as the new ones while Explorer filtered out the old letters, but the underlying problem -- USB drives getting a new letter each time while the old letter remained stuck/reserved -- wasn't caused by Opus.

Do your USB drives appear twice in Explorer and Opus or only in Opus? It may be that they've had two drive letters for a while but Explorer has been hiding the "old" ones so you just didn't know about them.

If you go to Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Computer Management and click on Disk Management in the tree you should see a definitive list of drive letters on your computer.

38

Which a thorough reading of this thread (as recommended) would have easily shown... :confused:

39

Tanis, thanks.

Which a thorough reading of this thread (as recommended) would have easily shown... :confused:[/quote]

Well, not that easily IMO. because I still have the problem and did not have it before Opus.

I did read the thread and drew the conlcusion that my symptoms were similar, so I wanted to find out what might be causing the duplication.

I am not using Spy Doctor.

Brian

40

[quote="nudel"]

Do your USB drives appear twice in Explorer and Opus or only in Opus? It may be that they've had two drive letters for a while but Explorer has been hiding the "old" ones so you just didn't know about them.

If you go to Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Computer Management and click on Disk Management in the tree you should see a definitive list of drive letters on your computer.[/quote]

Thanks Nudel again.
Computer Management/Storage/Disk Management shows the number of drives correctly.

Logical Drives shows all the correct drives PLUS the duplicates.

In My computer and Explorer I see all the soc-called logical drives.

I have already this weekend, removed the USB externals and the hub, reinstalled the USB drivers and for a time it worked OK, but then the duplicates re-appeared.

I would be the happiest person if I could resolve this without having to get rid of Opus 8 for obvious r3easons.
Brian
Brian