"ghost" drive

So here's my problem:
I just built a computer and had installed a hard drive and two dvd drives.
The hard drive got labeled C and the DVD-roms got labeled D and E.
I wanted to partition C, so I went to computer management>disk management and renamed the dvd-roms to drive letters E and F because I wanted the partition to be drive letter D. The dvd-roms are now E and F and work properly, but now I have a "ghost" D drive that is read as a CD-drive. I am unable to label the partition to drive letter D because its taken up by this "ghost" drive and had to name it to letter I. Also, the D drive letter doesnt show up in the disk management tool. Can anyone please help me get rid of this D drive that does nothing but take up a drive letter?
Here is a screenshot if it helps:

 

ooops, link doesnt work
also:

I'm running Windows XP Pro

Here the screenshot

 

anyone..any help is appreciated!

 

Have you tried to just right click & delete D

 

lol yes, delete doesnt show up on the menu

 

Have you tried to disconnect the 2 optical drives from the pc and then attempt to delete this ghost partition (if it still exists after reboot).

Do you have access to any disk partitioning utilities, ie Partition Magic, BiNG, Acronis, etc. BiNG can be used free from a dos floppy. Head down to Terabyte Unlimited and download it.

Good Luck

 

Do you have any drive emulation software running? Daemon Tools; ISO writers?

I've never figured out how to do what you want to do except by reinstalling Windows with all the drives in place. It looks like you added your slave drive after installing windows and before partitioning your master.

Sorry I can't be of more help.

 

The 'ghost' drive that windows is displaying is not a physical drive but a 'software driver' for the CD-Rom device. It was installed on the system when the operating system was installed. To remove it, open your Device Management applet, navigate to the DVD\CD-Rom drives and select the CD-Rom. Then 'right-click' for options. One of the options is 'uninstall' which will then free-up D: drive slot for a 'real' drive.

 

Someone else is having a very similar issue... here's the thread:
http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=155116
I posted some link there that may help. Have you tried a system restore to right before the problem started? If that's not possible, it seems that you've got this early enough to where just reloading Windows wouldn't be a massive problem. Just be sure to partition the hard drive the way you want to keep it BEFORE installing Windows and all your drivers.
Good luck!

 

thanks for the help fellas. i tried unplugging everything but the harddrive, but the D drive still exists and there is no way to uninstall it. the D drive doesnt show up in any program or menu. i think the only thing i can do now is reinstall windows...which i really dont want to do lol

 

Dont know if this will help but I found that a program, power ISO I had previousley installed had created a virtual drive. I think that the virtual drive was sitting un-noticed in my pc and when I disconnected the external hard drive my pc re-allocated the drive letter to the virtual drive. It was a simple process to disable the virtual drive in power ISO and then change the drive letter back to the external hard drive where I wanted it.

Thanks all.
Jiroma

 

OMG i feel dumb...thanks jiroma...i forgot that i had power iso installed and it mounted a virtual drive (D)...all i had to do was unmount it! DOH!!

 

Hey, I said that!

 

lol yes you did...but it never occured to me to check out power iso till jiroma mentioned the virtual drive