Computer Hope

Microsoft => Microsoft Windows => Windows XP => Topic started by: Gnomestone on June 27, 2007, 09:29:23 PM

Title: Local Disk appearing as unknown (LINK TO PICTURE INSIDE)
Post by: Gnomestone on June 27, 2007, 09:29:23 PM
It's been like this for a while, I really don't know why, never did anything to make it like this, I have an image I took using Print Screen.

Everything works ok. But I want it back to normal, with the normal icon, obviously something is wrong.


The picture below is pretty big. Just in case you have a really old computer.

http://img241.imageshack.us/img241/6960/localdiskerrorks9.jpg


i'll likely reply tommorow, im pretty tired

Thanks.
Title: Re: Local Disk appearing as unknown (LINK TO PICTURE INSIDE)
Post by: dl65 on June 27, 2007, 11:18:37 PM
Gnomestone ...... You didnt mention it but it looks like your operating system may be XP ....... if it is and your system is virus and trojan free, you could use the system restore feature to get things back to normal. You would have to set it back to when you know it was displaying correctly.


dl65  ::)
Title: Re: Local Disk appearing as unknown (LINK TO PICTURE INSIDE)
Post by: contrex on June 28, 2007, 02:06:04 AM
The usual explanation for this drive icon change is that an autorun.inf file has found its way into the root folder of the drive in question. Therefore look for such a file and delete it, in safe mode if necessary.
Title: Re: Local Disk appearing as unknown (LINK TO PICTURE INSIDE)
Post by: Gnomestone on June 28, 2007, 09:01:25 AM
Thank you both for your replies.

I found a few autoruns, do i delete all of them? None of them are labeled unknown.

http://img509.imageshack.us/img509/4708/autorunmk8.jpg

There's the pic, 3 Autoruns under Intel.
Title: Re: Local Disk appearing as unknown (LINK TO PICTURE INSIDE)
Post by: contrex on June 28, 2007, 10:22:08 AM
Autorun.inf files should only -- ever -- be found on a CD-ROM. You should not have ***any*** autorun files in your C:\ root folder, they usually get there because of installing some appplication wrongly, or more worryingly, because of a virus.

You should definitely delete these autorun.inf files. If they come back, this is a sign you have a virus. You should then take the normal steps to deal with this.

Title: Re: Local Disk appearing as unknown (LINK TO PICTURE INSIDE)
Post by: Gnomestone on June 28, 2007, 03:00:46 PM
All of them? Im worried. Should i even delete the one that looks like a green machine Icon. I don't want deleting these to cause a problem. They are Intel files which basically runs my computer, can someone confirm all 3 are ok to delete? Two of them are the same icon, one is green, check the picture

ThAnks
Title: Re: Local Disk appearing as unknown (LINK TO PICTURE INSIDE)
Post by: Gnomestone on June 28, 2007, 03:12:58 PM
I deleted the 2 READ-ME ones, that didn't work, but i didn't delete the one that looks REALLY important, the one that looks like a green machine, check the picture and tell me if I should do it thanks.
Title: Re: Local Disk appearing as unknown (LINK TO PICTURE INSIDE)
Post by: contrex on June 28, 2007, 03:38:36 PM
As I have already said, autorun.inf files only belong on CD-ROMs, no matter how "important" the icon looks!

If you are scared, just rename it to Xautorun.inf rather than deleting it.

Title: Re: Local Disk appearing as unknown (LINK TO PICTURE INSIDE)
Post by: contrex on June 28, 2007, 03:41:25 PM
That folder is not the C:\ folder. It is the C:\Intel10.3 folder. Have you looked in your C:\ folder?

Title: Re: Local Disk appearing as unknown (LINK TO PICTURE INSIDE)
Post by: Gnomestone on June 29, 2007, 07:25:41 PM
That folder is not the C:\ folder. It is the C:\Intel10.3 folder. Have you looked in your C:\ folder?



nothing is in my C:/ folder that is as explained, only the intel one, is there no way to fix my problem? want me to take a screenshot of my C:/ folder?
Title: Re: Local Disk appearing as unknown (LINK TO PICTURE INSIDE)
Post by: patio on June 30, 2007, 06:01:27 AM
Yes.
Title: Re: Local Disk appearing as unknown (LINK TO PICTURE INSIDE)
Post by: contrex on June 30, 2007, 06:17:32 AM
have you now removed all the autorun.inf files?#
Title: Re: Local Disk appearing as unknown (LINK TO PICTURE INSIDE)
Post by: Gnomestone on June 30, 2007, 11:10:49 AM
Thanks for staying with me everyone. Here's the pic of my C:/ folder


http://img524.imageshack.us/img524/9615/cfoldersd2.jpg

The only 2 autorun files i deleted were the READ-ME type ones, text ones, nothing autorun is in the C:/ folder so i didnt delete the green icon one

thx
Title: Re: Local Disk appearing as unknown (LINK TO PICTURE INSIDE)
Post by: contrex on June 30, 2007, 11:16:53 AM
When you took that screen shot, did you have "show hidden files and folders" enabled?

Also, an autorun.inf file on a hard drive will do absolutely nothing useful whatsoever, no matter how impressive and important looking its icon may be. No matter what color its icon is. It should be deleted. If it is read-only it was probably copied over from the CD-ROM where it belonged.

You could try this

download tweakui from microsoft's xp website at the following
location and install it.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx

this should add a powertoys option to your start menu.  in that sub
menu launch tweakui.  the last option in the tree on the left is
repair.  click it and the click the rebuild icons button on the dialog
to the right.
Title: Re: Local Disk appearing as unknown (LINK TO PICTURE INSIDE)
Post by: Gnomestone on June 30, 2007, 11:26:58 AM
When you took that screen shot, did you have "show hidden files and folders" enabled?

Also, an autorun.inf file on a hard drive will do absolutely nothing useful whatsoever, no matter how impressive and important looking its icon may be. No matter what color its icon is. It should be deleted. If it is read-only it was probably copied over from the CD-ROM where it belonged.

You could try this

download tweakui from microsoft's xp website at the following
location and install it.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx

this should add a powertoys option to your start menu.  in that sub
menu launch tweakui.  the last option in the tree on the left is
repair.  click it and the click the rebuild icons button on the dialog
to the right.

I tried that, and sadly it didnt affect my Local Disk. I looked under the tab and it said it repaired My Music, Font, Video, and Picture folders. I still did try twice. But thanks contrex for the continued help. I am open to anything please feel free to keep giving me ideas. Thank you. I'll be checking a few times each day. Thanks again!
Title: Re: Local Disk appearing as unknown (LINK TO PICTURE INSIDE)
Post by: contrex on June 30, 2007, 11:33:21 AM
Quote
When you took that screen shot, did you have "show hidden files and folders" enabled?
Title: Re: Local Disk appearing as unknown (LINK TO PICTURE INSIDE)
Post by: Gnomestone on June 30, 2007, 11:47:14 AM
Quote
When you took that screen shot, did you have "show hidden files and folders" enabled?


Yes, I did, I renamed the Autorun icon in my Intel10.3 folder to xAutorun, that didn't work, i took a screenshot.

http://img248.imageshack.us/img248/4685/autorunwk7.jpg

putting a x infront of the autorun didn't seem to do much
Title: Re: Local Disk appearing as unknown (LINK TO PICTURE INSIDE)
Post by: contrex on June 30, 2007, 12:14:16 PM
I still do not understand at all why you have not deleted that autorun.inf.

Title: Re: Local Disk appearing as unknown (LINK TO PICTURE INSIDE)
Post by: Gnomestone on June 30, 2007, 04:15:20 PM
I still do not understand at all why you have not deleted that autorun.inf.



Well...... First off, you said it doesn't matter as it's not in the C:/ folder...it's in the C:/ Intel folder........then you said you can just rename it, which i did and no difference. Plus i don't even know if it's .inf
Title: Re: Local Disk appearing as unknown (LINK TO PICTURE INSIDE)
Post by: contrex on June 30, 2007, 04:51:32 PM
Plus i don't even know if it's .inf

Yes, I noticed you have chosen to hide known file extensions. This can be dangerous sometimes. If you right click on the file and choose "properties" the full filename should be visible.
Title: Re: Local Disk appearing as unknown (LINK TO PICTURE INSIDE)
Post by: Gnomestone on June 30, 2007, 06:31:41 PM
Here's the picture.......... http://img84.imageshack.us/img84/7499/untitledhx9.jpg

Also, I tried renaming it without deleting and that took no effect, also this isn't in the C:/ Folder, it's in the C:/ Intel folder. I did post a picture of the C:/ Folder earlier.

Please stay with me and thank you!
Title: Re: Local Disk appearing as unknown (LINK TO PICTURE INSIDE)
Post by: Gnomestone on June 30, 2007, 06:43:43 PM
Also contrex, when I open the autorun file in my Intel folder, it says "INI file not found" not .inf, INI file.
Title: Re: Local Disk appearing as unknown (LINK TO PICTURE INSIDE)
Post by: contrex on July 01, 2007, 03:26:04 AM
Have you tried Drive Icon Changer, which seems to be freeware?

http://www.softpedia.com/progDownload/Drive-Icon-Changer-Download-52818.html

Title: Re: Local Disk appearing as unknown (LINK TO PICTURE INSIDE)
Post by: Gnomestone on July 01, 2007, 08:31:11 AM
Have you tried Drive Icon Changer, which seems to be freeware?

http://www.softpedia.com/progDownload/Drive-Icon-Changer-Download-52818.html



I downloaded and installed the software, but I had to take a screenshot of something because I didn't know what to write in.

http://img186.imageshack.us/img186/862/untitledmt3.jpg

I have C:/ written in at the top as you see, but I don't know what to put in the 2 things at the bottom, their circled.
Title: Re: Local Disk appearing as unknown (LINK TO PICTURE INSIDE)
Post by: contrex on July 01, 2007, 08:38:42 AM
imageshack seems to be down at the moment, I cannot view that image, I'll try later.
Title: Re: Local Disk appearing as unknown (LINK TO PICTURE INSIDE)
Post by: Gnomestone on July 01, 2007, 09:34:22 AM
imageshack seems to be down at the moment, I cannot view that image, I'll try later.



Ok cool, it seems to be working now.
Title: Re: Local Disk appearing as unknown (LINK TO PICTURE INSIDE)
Post by: contrex on July 01, 2007, 12:01:34 PM
Ok cool, it seems to be working now.

Not where I am. Is the link typed correctly?
Title: Re: Local Disk appearing as unknown (LINK TO PICTURE INSIDE)
Post by: contrex on July 01, 2007, 01:47:33 PM
other imageshack links are working fine at my location, but that one gets a "server not found" screen.
Title: Re: Local Disk appearing as unknown (LINK TO PICTURE INSIDE)
Post by: Gnomestone on July 01, 2007, 03:44:39 PM
I took a new pic, C:/ is in the browse area so that's my local disk. The bottom 2 are what i don't know what to do for, i circled them.

http://img329.imageshack.us/img329/8846/driveicontv6.jpg
Title: Re: Local Disk appearing as unknown (LINK TO PICTURE INSIDE)
Post by: contrex on July 02, 2007, 01:33:02 AM
I hope you can see this!

The icons which Windows XP normally uses for disk drives etc are contained in a file called shell32.dll which is located in the C:\Windows\System32 folder. The normal icon for hard disk drives is number 8 in the file.

In this picture icon 0 (zero) is highlighted

(http://i124.photobucket.com/albums/p29/badoit/icons32.jpg)

Icon numbers:

0  4  8
1  5
2  6
3  7



(http://i124.photobucket.com/albums/p29/badoit/driveicon.jpg)

You need to click the "create" button and then refresh My Computer by clicking the titlebar once and pressing the F5 key.

The result of choosing icon 8 for my C drive is as you see here

(http://i124.photobucket.com/albums/p29/badoit/cicon.jpg)

Title: Re: Local Disk appearing as unknown (LINK TO PICTURE INSIDE)
Post by: Gnomestone on July 02, 2007, 08:54:25 PM
Thanks for the post contrex, i got one question i found the shell32.dll file, but I can't open it since it is .dll, which means i can't figure out which icon my local drive is, 0, 1, 2, 3, etc., i can't find which one since the file can't be opened, should i just write in 8 without knowing which one? Thanks!
Title: Re: Local Disk appearing as unknown (LINK TO PICTURE INSIDE)
Post by: contrex on July 03, 2007, 01:43:11 AM
Well, the standard icon for a hard drive is shell32.dll icon number 8 on my system (Windows XP Pro), and I checked it by using that information in the Drive Icon Changer program, and got the result that you saw in the screen shot that I posted.

Short description of how to find out an icon's number:-

Right-click any shortcut and choose Properties. Click the Change Icon button. Type the path (eg C:\Windows\System32\shell32.dll) to the file that contains the icon you want, or use the Browse button to select it from its folder location. When you see the icons displayed in the Change Icon dialog box, count--starting from zero (the number of the first icon in any file)--from top to bottom, left to right. When you get the right number, click Cancel twice

Description with pictures...


1. Create a shortcut (eg on your desktop). It can be to any location or program. Right click and choose "Properties".

(http://i124.photobucket.com/albums/p29/badoit/icon1.jpg)

(http://i124.photobucket.com/albums/p29/badoit/icon2.jpg)

2. Click the Change Icon button. Then click the Browse button in the Change icon dialog and navigate to C:\Windows\System32\shell32.dll

(http://i124.photobucket.com/albums/p29/badoit/icon5.jpg)

3. In this picture icon no. 8 is highlighted, counting from 0 at the top left, going down in columns. The top row of icons are numbers 0, 4, 8,12,16 and so on.

(http://i124.photobucket.com/albums/p29/badoit/icon3.jpg)

4. When you are satisfied you can cancel your way back out of everything and delete the shortcut, or you can practice assigning various icons to your temporary test shortcut. You could also try assigning different icon numbers to your local hard drive with the Drive Icon Changer program, to satisfy yourself (a) that it is possible, (b) that the numbers are as I said.









Title: Re: Local Disk appearing as unknown (LINK TO PICTURE INSIDE)
Post by: Gnomestone on July 03, 2007, 08:16:04 AM
It seems that there is no change icon tab on My Documents  > Properties. I took a screenshot.

http://img444.imageshack.us/img444/532/nochangeiconib3.jpg
Title: Re: Local Disk appearing as unknown (LINK TO PICTURE INSIDE)
Post by: contrex on July 03, 2007, 09:46:45 AM
It seems that there is no change icon tab on My Documents  > Properties. I took a screenshot.

http://img444.imageshack.us/img444/532/nochangeiconib3.jpg

???


Please read my post once again.

I wrote,

Quote
1. Create a shortcut (eg on your desktop). It can be to any location or program. Right click and choose "Properties".

I happened to create a shortcut to "My Documents". The regular shortcut to "My Documents" system folder already on your desktop or in My Computer is no good. Anyway, you probably wouldn't want to change its icon.





Title: Re: Local Disk appearing as unknown (LINK TO PICTURE INSIDE)
Post by: Gnomestone on July 03, 2007, 04:40:37 PM
Awesome it worked, didn't think it would at first. Thanks a bunch for everything contrex. I really appreciate that you continued to help through 3 pages of questions.
Title: Re: Local Disk appearing as unknown (LINK TO PICTURE INSIDE)
Post by: contrex on July 03, 2007, 11:50:50 PM
Gonomestone, you were right to be cautious! I'm glad it worked.

Title: Re: Local Disk appearing as unknown (LINK TO PICTURE INSIDE)
Post by: blackpaw on July 04, 2007, 08:07:09 AM
oh what u gotta do is Install Tuneup Utilities 2006 then go to optimize and improve and click on registry defrag then go through all that mumbo jumbo and ur done hope this helps it sure helped me
Title: Re: Local Disk appearing as unknown (LINK TO PICTURE INSIDE)
Post by: blackpaw on July 04, 2007, 08:13:56 AM
if that doesnt work try system optimizer (also on TuneUp utilities
Title: Re: Local Disk appearing as unknown (LINK TO PICTURE INSIDE)
Post by: contrex on July 04, 2007, 09:35:15 AM
INeedhelp, didn't you read, his problem is solved already.
Title: Re: Local Disk appearing as unknown (LINK TO PICTURE INSIDE)
Post by: patio on July 04, 2007, 09:40:01 AM
if that doesnt work try system optimizer (also on TuneUp utilities

This is the second thread you have hijacked with advice on a specific program.

Not a good way to get started here.