The Hindu Business Line : Changing drive settings

My system configuration is Pentium IV with 512 MB RAM, 80 GB hard disk. I have loaded Windows XP Professional operating system with the latest service pack 2.

The problem I face is that, whenever I start my system, after Windows is loaded, everything appears to come up normally. If I open my computer, it shows a blank display but shows 10 objects at the bottom of the window.

My hard disk is fully functional, that is I am able to open my C, D, E, F drives through start button on the run box.

Please suggest a solution.

VIJAYA BHASKAR

The Drives in windows XP can be made to disappear from the My Computer window by changing the setting in registry and also by changing the group policy.

Some virus might have changed the setting in the registry. Please make sure your computer is updated with OS updates and your Antivirus is also updated. Run a full scan to clean the virus.

For registry setting to make the drives invisible from My Computer, please open the regedit by clicking Start, Run. Type regedit and click Ok. The Registry Editor will open.

Here, navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\ Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ Policies\Explorer

From the Edit Menu, please create a New DWORD value. Type the value "NoDrives" for this DWORD value. Right-click "NoDrives" and select Modify.

In the Edit DWORD value window, select the Base as Decimal. The value in the Value data varies as per the drive to be hidden from My Computer window.

The values for each drive are as follows. A = 1, B = 2, C = 4, D = 8, E = 16, F = 32, G = 64, H = 128, I = 256.

If you want to hide C and D drive, please add the values 4 and 8 for the "NoDrives" Value in the Registry editor. Changes in the Registry will take effect after the restart of the computer.

If you have these registry entries in your computer, delete the "NoDrives" DWORD and try restarting the computer.

The other way to hide the drives is to change the settings in the group policy. To open the Group Policy editor, please click Start, Run. Type gpedit.msc and click Ok to open the group policy editor. In that, go to User configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Windows Components -> Windows Explorer.

In this page, there are a lot of settings. Please double-click on the "Hide these Specified drives in my computer". By default this policy is not configured. If this is configured to hide the drives in my computer, then disable this setting to make the drives visible in My Computer.

SOLUTION BY P. NATARAJAN

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