How do I get rid of this stupid virtual drive?

[Skeen]

Thanks for taking a look at my problem.

Now then, I downloaded some files in a strange format. After doing a search it seems that the files were saved in a proprietary Virtual Drive format. So I downloaded the free trial and it automatically set up a virtual drive for me. I still couldn't do anything with the files so I erased them and uninstalled the Virtual Drive program. Now whenever I restart my computer this virtual drive comes back. I've uninstalled it in the Device Manager and ran a Registry cleaning program hoping it was some left over crap in there that was doing this. No dice. I have to uninstall it everytime I restart. How do I get rid of it? Here's a screenshot:

 

[alphasl]

Did you try reinstalling the virtual drive program, disabling the virtual drive, and then uninstalling?

 

[Skeen]

Yeah I did. When I reinstalled, the program didn't even recognize the virtual drive it had created, so I couldn't remove it from within Virtual Drive Creator. But I uninstalled it in the Device Manager and then uninstalled VDC, then rebooted. The dang thing is still there.

Thanks.

 

[Brundle Fly]

...have you tried restoring your system to before it was installed? I'm a dwnld junkie, and restore saves my butt(and a format) all the time...

 

[Skeen]

Unfortunately I don't have one far enough back (I've been kind of lazy about fixing this). Hmm I guess a repair installation might not work either as it might not be a Win problem, or am I wrong about that?

 

[Brundle Fly]

...a repair installation will(let me change that to "SHOULD") work, problem is you could lose some files, if you backup everything important first, go ahead and do a repair. You won't NECESSARILY lose anything, just know you might lose some of your files. I've never lost anything, but the possibilty does exist...

...when you do a repair installation, don't choose "repair" the first time it appears, that's the recovery console, you want the second repair option...

...personally, I clean out my restore points, and just keep one or two available. Before I install anything I haven't used before, I create a restore point, and then my butt is covered. I was guilty of skipping restore points in the past, and payed for it with more than a couple formats...

 

[Skeen]

Ok thanks, I guess I'll chalk this up to experience.

 

[Know Nuttin]

try this.

go into the registry.

do a search for the virtual drive in this key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\DeviceClasses

if you find it, delete it. You may find lots of optical drives there, if you've updated firmware.

 

[Skeen]

Well your suggestion looked promising but when I followed the reg key, it gave me something like 100+ options, all with names like: {97f76ef0-f883-11d0-af1f-0000f800845c}. And each of these mysterious entries were expandable. Got any idea what I should look for?

 

[Know Nuttin]

do a search in that key for the name of an optical drive, like "Lite-On" . You should then see several keys listed that are optical drives. Your virtual drive should show up listed there as well

 

[Skeen]

Ok I found the key and deleted it (after uninstalling the VD) and then rebooted. The virtual drive was still there. Thanks for the suggestion though.

 

[Know Nuttin]

have you checked what is running on startup? There may be a TSR which is loading.

 

[redduc900]

I'm assuming you had Alcohol 120% installed...if so, open Device Manager | Expand "SCSI and RAID controllers" | Look for the Alcohol SCSI controller from the previous version, and remove it. All Alcohol drives should disappear...normally this happens automatically when you uninstall alcohol, unless at the uninstallation time you still had some image mounted. Also remove "Plug and Play Bios Extension" from System Devices, and if needed...the Virtual Drive drivers from the "C:\Windows\System32\Drivers" directory.

 

[Skeen]

Thanks Know Nuttin and redduc900. I feel like an idiot. I forgot that I still had Alcohol 120% still installed. I uninstalled it and everything is fine. Thanks again.