How do you remove the drives when want to unplug them? Do you use Safely Remove Hardware, or just pull them out?
Is it only one duplicate per drive? Maybe you can simply delete them from the control panel, or right-click and Eject them from My Computer. (Or remove them via Safely Remove Hardware, if they're listed there?)
[quote="nudel"]How do you remove the drives when want to unplug them? Do you use Safely Remove Hardware, or just pull them out?
Is it only one duplicate per drive? Maybe you can simply delete them from the control panel, or right-click and Eject them from My Computer. (Or remove them via Safely Remove Hardware, if they're listed there?)[/quote]
I have 3 USB drives (300 Gb each) - 2 of these have duplicates and 1 of 112 GB (which also has 1 duplicate)
I safely remove them, if necessary of course. But they are there more or less permanently and essential for backups etc. Never any problems.
Except now when I get duplicates.
I don't want to trouble you people too much. I understand you are maybe not technical support, perhaps I should take it up with technial support as well as my other problem where commands cannot be dragged to a tool bar.
What would you recommend? I can't really spend too much time on getting Opus working if it's going to be like this.
All your help apprecaited.
Brian
What exactly do you mean by duplicates? Do you mean the same drive gets two different letters? Or do you mean the same letter shows up twice?
Can you post a screenshot to illustrate the problem?
What other software are you running?
[edit: last two posts deleted. this thread is about erroneous drive letters, not drag and drop issues.]
[quote="jon"]What exactly do you mean by duplicates? Do you mean the same drive gets two different letters? Or do you mean the same letter shows up twice?
Can you post a screenshot to illustrate the problem?
Attaching a png file showing my drive configurations.
C and D are OK
G and K are mirror images
H and M are mirror images
This problem is new and only occurred after installation of Opus 8.
Am running a lot of software but nothing that I can think is directly related. Again trouble free. Both before and after Opus 8
Brian
Ok, make sure Opus is not set as Explorer Replacement, or set to run on startup, then reboot your system. At this point Opus has not been run. Open My Computer in Explorer - do you still see these drive letters?
No I don't have Opuis as Exploreer replacement and it is not set to run at start up, and I see the same thing.
Brian
Which version of Windows are you running? Does it have all the latest updates from Windows Update installed?
I found a couple of hotfixes on Microsoft's site, each to do with USB drives getting duplicate drive letters during boot up. Although they don't mention USB HDDs (one is about CD-ROMs and the other about Floppy drives) the two issues sound like they're caused by the same thing as each other, and have the same symptoms as what you're seeing, so it's possible the fix for them also fixes what you're seeing.
support.microsoft.com/kb/822763/
support.microsoft.com/kb/836662/
These fixes are part of "Update Rollup 1 for Microsoft Windows 2000 Service Pack 4 (June 28, 2005)" so should already be installed on your machine if it's been kept up-to-date via Windows Update, but if it hasn't been updated in a while then that might explain it.
It sounds like the problem is caused by a timing issue during reboot. If the USB drive isn't ready at a particular time then versions of Windows affected by the bug would double-up the drive letters.
I'm not sure if installing the hotfix will remove existing duplicate letters or if it just prevents them from happening again but leaves them there. One of the articles mentions steps for removing the letters but the other one doesn't.
I would:
[ul][li]Make sure all windows updates are installed.[/li]
[li]Safely remove the drives and unplug them.[/li]
[li]Note whether the drive letters are gone after unplugging them.[/li]
[li]Reboot.[/li]
[li]Plug the drives in again.[/li]
[li]Note whether one or two drive letters appear for them.[/li]
[li]Reboot again with the drives plugged in and see if the duplicate letters come back.[/li][/ul]
So you see the same thing in Explorer, on a system that Opus has never been run on after a reboot?
Yes, that is correct.
Do you think I should first try uninstalling Opus 8 ?
Will try Nudel's suggestion of updating Windows.
Thanks for persvering.
Brian
By all means, try uninstalling Opus, but I don't think it will make much difference.
If, as you say, this still hapens even when Opus has never been started then there's really no way Opus could be responsible. It simply doesn't hook into the system at that sort of level.
Edit: I found this newsgroup post on google - I know it's from 1998, but if Norton Utilities had this sort of bug once maybe they have managed to reintroduce it? Have you updated Norton recently?
[quote="jon"]
If, as you say, this still hapens even when Opus has never been started then there's really no way Opus could be responsible. It simply doesn't hook into the system at that sort of level.
/quote]
So you are saying there is no way that installing Opus 8 could lead to this problem?
Norton System Works - I find great, not the Anti-Virus.
Brian
Pretty much, yes. No way I can think of.
Opus is just an application. It doesn't install at the low-level that would be necessary to "create drive letters".
When Opus is running, I can kind of see the remote possibility that something like this could happen as a side-effect of another problem. For example, if Opus didn't release all open file handles on a device when it was unplugged, I can see that it may be possible for a different drive letter to be assigned when the device is reinserted. Note that I've never actually seen this happen - but I acknowledge the remote possibility.
However, if Opus is not running, there's no way at all it could be responsible. It simply doesn't have the ability to do this.
Please, to satisfy your self, try uninstalling Opus and see if it makes any difference. I will be very surprised if it does 
I really don't know what casued the "duplication of drives". I triedmany remedies. No success. Perhaps it was soemthing faulty with my Windows 2000 system.
Anyhow I reformatted on another computer under Windows Xp and that seems to have solved the problem so far.
So now I am a very satisifed user of Opus 8 and love its functionality particauarly file collections .
Thanks to everyone for all help and suggestions.javascript:emoticon(':D')
Very Happy
Brian