Tech Support Forum - View Single Post - Why Is Desktop Looking for External Hard Drive?

elaurvick · 07-06-2008, 04:09 PM

I backed up my files to my external hard drive this morning. When I finished, I turned off the hard drive - - - and most of the icons on my desk top disappeared! After spending hours on this, I've discovered:
1) If I turn the external hard drive back on, the icons all reappear on my screen. It's off as I write this. I normally keep it turned off.
2) The desktop folder is still on C:\, all the shortcuts are still there, and they all point to the correct files on C:\
3) I have the Desktop folder open, and I can open any file by clicking on the shortcut INSIDE the folder
4) Desktop is on my toolbar, but only brings up these icons:
My Computer
Recycle Bin
My Documents
My Network Places
Internet Explorer
3) I can delete and recreate a new shortcut within any folder, but when I try to move it to the desktop, I get a popup with this message "E:\ refers to a location that is unavailable. It could be a hard drive on this computer, or on a network. . ."
4) The backup of this folder on the external drive shows the file names as being on C:\. It did NOT convert them to point at the E:\ drive, and if I use these I can also access the files on C:\

E:\ is assigned by Windows to the external drive. I checked for malware, spyware, and viruses, found nothing. My system is clean. I have a firewall running at all times, has never caused problems. I'm running Windows XP Home Edition, Service Pack 2. I don't think I've installed Service Pack 3 yet, if I have I can't find it anywhere (I searched). My system has an AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual, 2.21 GHz, 1.00 GB of RAM. No network drives. 689 GB of Free Space.

Can anyone tell me how to fix this? Everything works OK, but I'm having a terrible time finding anything! I can't see how copying files to another device can cause this, but that's what's happened.

07-06-2008, 04:09 PM	#1 (permalink)
elaurvick Registered User Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: California Posts: 5 OS: Windows XP Home Edition	Why Is Desktop Looking for External Hard Drive? I backed up my files to my external hard drive this morning. When I finished, I turned off the hard drive - - - and most of the icons on my desk top disappeared! After spending hours on this, I've discovered: 1) If I turn the external hard drive back on, the icons all reappear on my screen. It's off as I write this. I normally keep it turned off. 2) The desktop folder is still on C:\, all the shortcuts are still there, and they all point to the correct files on C:\ 3) I have the Desktop folder open, and I can open any file by clicking on the shortcut INSIDE the folder 4) Desktop is on my toolbar, but only brings up these icons: My Computer Recycle Bin My Documents My Network Places Internet Explorer 3) I can delete and recreate a new shortcut within any folder, but when I try to move it to the desktop, I get a popup with this message "E:\ refers to a location that is unavailable. It could be a hard drive on this computer, or on a network. . ." 4) The backup of this folder on the external drive shows the file names as being on C:\. It did NOT convert them to point at the E:\ drive, and if I use these I can also access the files on C:\ E:\ is assigned by Windows to the external drive. I checked for malware, spyware, and viruses, found nothing. My system is clean. I have a firewall running at all times, has never caused problems. I'm running Windows XP Home Edition, Service Pack 2. I don't think I've installed Service Pack 3 yet, if I have I can't find it anywhere (I searched). My system has an AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual, 2.21 GHz, 1.00 GB of RAM. No network drives. 689 GB of Free Space. Can anyone tell me how to fix this? Everything works OK, but I'm having a terrible time finding anything! I can't see how copying files to another device can cause this, but that's what's happened.