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General discussion

A strange happening

Feb 17, 2004 9:30PM PST

I changed the drive letters for my partitions because XP had tossed them all over the place randomly rather than contiguously.

However, ever since I changed them, when I put a cd into one of my burner drives (I have two) and go to read what's on the disk, I have ghost icons showing up for folders on one of the partitions. These icons all have shortcut arrows on them, and I can right click and choose Delete, but when I check the partition, the real folder is gone. I can then restore it and it goes back to the correct partition, but it also shows back up on the cd as a shortcut to it.

If I put the same cd into the other cdrw, it appears correctly as browsed.

I'm also getting a window every once in a while that is a 'cd writing wizard' (I have Roxio installed) that indicates I have a cd ready to be burned with today's date on it and it asks whether I want to burn it now, burn it later, or delete the files. I'm sure not deleting files, but can't figure out what this window is all about either.

Anybody got any clues about what's happened?

TONI

Discussion is locked

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Re:A strange happening
Feb 17, 2004 10:04PM PST

The date would indicate today's date in editing the volume of the disk. Deleting files would only pertain to CDRW disks, for cd-r disks are write protected once the session is completed. As for ghosting, try resetting the configuration data in your BIOS settings, to see if a new read on all hard drives (which also include all internal cd type drives will provide a correct read) corrects this issue. If you had a prior configuration when this did not occur, system restore is also another option.

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Re:A strange happening
Feb 17, 2004 10:14PM PST

To facilitate CD recording, Windows XP uses a staging area (Drive_letter:\Documents and Settings\username\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\CD Burning) to store data for recording, which is also copied to a monolithic disk image file (StashImapi.bin) located in the root folder by default, [Q279157].

Note: Any files held in the temporary storage area -- before they are copied to the CD (Files Ready to Be Written to the CD), will cause the Balloon message (You have files waiting to be written to CD. To see these files, click this balloon) to be rendered on system start (HOW TO: Copy Information to a CD in Windows XP (Q306524)).

Bill

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Re:Re:A strange happening...it turns out the files are
Feb 17, 2004 11:08PM PST

actually folders and files on an entire partition...

I read the articles and one says I can right click and delete the temp files...so what I did was empty my recycle bin, gave it lots more room to hold the folders and files just in case, and deleted the temp files.

Windows LIES....I got an error message saying it couldn't delete the recycle bin and System Information folder from the temp files folder because they are in use. Then I checked the partition and everything was gone except the recycle bin and the system information folder.

I restored everything from the recycle bin, and am back at square one....getting the balloon window telling me the files are ready to be burned.

Can I delete the .bin file from that cdburning folder and be done with this nonsense?

TONI

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'I read the articles and one says I can right click and delete the temp files'???
Feb 17, 2004 11:26PM PST

I only use Roxio Easy CD. That article,

To delete files and folders from the CD recorder temporary storage area:

1. Double-click My Computer, and then double-click the CD recording drive.

2. Windows displays a temporary storage area where files are held before they are copied to the CD. Files or folders located in the temporary storage area are listed under Files Ready to Be Written to the CD.

3.Under CD Writing Tasks, click Delete temporary files. Windows deletes the files and folders from the temporary storage area and moves them to the Recycle Bin. NOTE: When you delete the contents of the temporary storage area, you make this area available for another set of files and folders that you want to copy to the CD. The files are not deleted from their original location on your computer or from the CD.

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Re:'I read the articles and one says I can right click and delete the temp files'???
Feb 17, 2004 11:43PM PST

>>>>3.Under CD Writing Tasks, click Delete temporary files. Windows deletes the files and folders from the temporary storage area and moves them to the Recycle Bin. NOTE: When you delete the contents of the temporary storage area, you make this area available for another set of files and folders that you want to copy to the CD. The files are not deleted from their original location on your computer or from the CD.>>>

That is exactly what I did after increasing the size of the recycle bin just in case, Bill...and what got deleted were the original folders and files from that partition except for the recycle bin and system restore info folder. I checked the original partition to make sure...so I restored them from the recycle bin and came back here.

I did a search for that .bin file before getting back here and there is no such file on my C: drive...and the CD BURNING folder is empty (I checked that also).

And yet I keep getting the balloon window, and I also get the ghosted partition folders and files showing up when I browse a cd in that cdrw only....the other cdrw portrays the contents correctly. I used a music cd to test the drive and it will play the music files that are on it just fine...just browsing the cd shows the partition folders and files.

Any more you can suggest to get rid of this annoyance...that's all it is as far as browsing the cd goes, but the balloon is a PITA when it shouldn't even be there.

TONI

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Toni...Perhaps try this...
Feb 18, 2004 1:01AM PST

My guess is that in the process of renaming your Drive Letters somehow this ghosting of files & folders occured.

Perhaps if you disconnect the IDE cable for your CD-ROM & CD-RW drives and reboot and let XP rename the drive letters they would now be in the correct sequence.

After that reattach the CD-Rom drive IDE cable and see if the letters will now be sorted out.

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Re:Toni...Perhaps try this...Hi, David
Feb 18, 2004 1:16AM PST

I had tried that once before and somehow or another, XP took two extra harddrives I had already formatted to be nothing more than Extended Drives with Logical Partitions in them to now having one zero bite Primary Dos Partition on it and one having an 8KB Primary Dos Partition on it....which is how the drive letters got whacked in the first place.

Because I have data on both of those harddrives that I want ready access to at all times (both have been backed up to cd), I have the option of deleting those two small partitions, but didn't want to run the risk that XP would whack the rest of the partitions on the drives as well. I always pretty much knew what to expect with W98SE, but I'm still learning about XP so I tend to take things slowly with it until I research or ask ahead of time.

What I've discovered is that I could disable the cd burning service (didn't know that it would be in the services list until a few minutes ago) so I disabled that and I will reboot the computer to see if that takes care of at least the stupid annoying balloon alert. I will come back to let you know the results.

In the meantime, I ran into another couple of enigmas the past week or so and posted here about them...if you wouldn't mind running backwards in the pages here, I would appreciate any comments you could make about those. Thanks....nice to see your name pop up.

TONI

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Just for kickers,. . .
Feb 18, 2004 2:11AM PST

I'd assume, if there is information in the staging area to be copied, which is a hidden monolithic disc image file before data is recorded and by default located in the "Cd burning stash file.bin" in the root folder, I would have to guess that deletion/erasing isn't allowed. Otherwise, as far as I know -- about -> <- that much, any file(s) already located in a Staging area, the user should be able to delete at random since they have nothing to do with the originals.

Sorry.

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Drive letters.
Feb 18, 2004 2:22AM PST
I had tried that once before and somehow or another, XP took two extra harddrives I had already formatted to be nothing more than Extended Drives with Logical Partitions in them to now having one zero bite Primary Dos Partition on it and one having an 8KB Primary Dos Partition on it....which is how the drive letters got whacked in the first place.

Which you could remove, [Q307844].
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Re:Toni...Perhaps try this...What I just Did
Feb 18, 2004 2:56AM PST

seems to have fixed it all except that I still have two extra very small partitions that XP created somehow two weeks ago (the Primary Dos Partitions I mentioned before that threw the drive letters out of whack)....I can live with this.

I disabled the CD BURN service, and rebooted and still got the balloon when I got to the desktop so....

I went into the Registry and did a search for all entries for cdburn....I exported a couple of them that were MS related and not WMP or Roxio related...then I deleted the keys.

I did this for six entries I found and then found two more that specifically had the K: partition mentioned. I outright deleted them since that's the drive letter that was being referred to in the balloon and also kept appearing on a cd window when I browsed the cd. I didn't export either of those registry entries.

I rebooted the computer, did NOT receive the balloon message this time, put a music cd into both cdrw drives one at a time, browsed the cd and the ghosted partition K: was no longer there.

Went to the folder on the desktop where I had exported the registry entries and imported them back...then rebooted the computer and all is still well.

What a total PITA....XP is a whole nuther nut to crack compared to older versions of Windows, and I sure as heck hope Longhorn will be more loveable...but even XP is nicer than ME ever was to me when I played with that one. XP is an adventure if nothing else, and I really am glad I'm taking the trip.

TONI

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Re:Re:Toni...I've renamed drive letters and used this method...
Feb 18, 2004 8:31AM PST

successfully...

First I renamed the CD-RW drive to say letter "Y".
This then frees up the letter previouslty occupied by the CD-RW and lets you assign it to the partition of your choice.

Never encountered your ghosting issue before!

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Re:Re:Re:Toni...I've renamed drive letters and used this method...
Feb 18, 2004 9:04AM PST

The ghosting started on Monday right after I burned a cd (I had already about a month ago renamed the two cdrw drives to Y & Z with no problems)...but I wasn't getting the balloon statement until today when I renamed the drive letters for the rest of the partitions to put them in the correct order.

Completely baffled me, but everything is fine now since I made the modifications in the registry. Thanks, guys.

Toni

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Toni..here's the explanation fo rthe ghosting...
Feb 18, 2004 9:11AM PST

"The ghosting started on Monday right after I burned a cd"...

If you use the XP built-in CD-Burning utility it creates a copy of your files you want to burn to the CD-RW drive.

When you activate the burning you have to check the option to clear/delete these temp files when the burning is completed.

If you don't select that option the next time you open the CD-RW drive you will see faded files of the files you've last burnt.

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Re:Toni..here's the explanation fo rthe ghosting...Nope
Feb 18, 2004 10:13AM PST

I always burn cd's using Roxio Platinum software...

Right after I burned that cd, I put another cd into the drive that had my motherboard drivers on it that I wanted to check something on...when I browsed that cd, I could see the ghost folders of everything I had just finished burning. This was on Monday. The files and folders I had burned were from a different partition (EHappy

I burned other cd's all day yesterday without incident...and today I changed drive letters of the partitions, opened a cd to browse it (hadn't burned anything today) and realized that my K: drive was being ghosted on that cd.

After I took the cd out of the drive, I immediately got the balloon tip and it was the first time it had come up. It never showed up on Monday when I first noticed the ghosting and that involved a different drive partition completely (even changing drive letters didn't involve the first ghosting issue because that drive didn't need to be changed).

A real enigma...but I have never used the XP software to burn a cd which after reading Bill's links confused me even more...and I have never burned anything from the K: drive before or after the drive letter was changed for it so I don't know why it would have picked that drive to ghost.

Also...I never had that .bin file anywhere in the CDBURNING folder (or any other place on my harddrive or partitions) mentioned in those links from Bill either which made it even stranger to deal with.

TONI