Drive Letter Crash

[Dumbledore]

In xp, if I open up MY COMPUTER and right click on any drive letter, an error report is generated and icons on view and the taskbar disappear then reappear after about 15 seconds.
I tried system restore and file check but no luck.
Anyone have any ideas?
Thanks

 

[Elvandil]

It could be that something was added to that menu by another application and that it is not working properly. You could try restoring the file associations for the drive just to see if it helps. This fix works on both drives and folders:

http://www.dougknox.com/xp/scripts/xp_folder_open.vbs

Also, try ContextEdit. Run the program and scroll down to "Drive" in the left column. On the right will be (some) items in the right-click context menu for drives. Try unchecking all of them to see if that helps and then returning them one at a time to see if one is causing the problem. You do not need to close and re-open the progam to do this---unchecking takes effect immediately.

ftp://ftp.sac.sk/pub/sac/utilfile/cnxtedit.zip

 

[Dumbledore]

Thanks elvandill, but Norton wouldn't let me open the first item (said malicious script)and I tried the second and no crash but nothing happened when I right clicked on properties.
Thanks anyway

 

[Elvandil]

You will have to bypass Norton to run any script. There is nothing malicious about that one.

When you say "nothing happened", do you mean there was no menu, no crash, or nothing at all? Did returning the entries one by one have any effect?

 

[Dumbledore]

ok I bypassed Norton and ran the open.vbs and got "folders will now open when double clicked" but the same problem still occurred.
With cnxtedit, I found four entries, unchecked them but without any improvement.
I have to apologise, my message could have been clearer.
AfterI right click on the drive icon, it is when I select "Properties" that the problem occurs.
The desktop disappears momenterly, reappears with no icons or taskbar, then the drive starts up and about 15 to 30 seconds later screen is back to normal. (No rebooting is requred)
After trying both the suggestions you provided, there was no change in this behaviour

 

[Elvandil]

OK. I thought that it was the context menu itself that was causing the problem, but it is only the Properties option that does this.

This is a slightly different problem since it is now the property sheet handlers that are the issue. And it may not be the property sheet handlers themselves that are the problem, but a CLSID that they reference. So this could be hard to track down.

There are a few programs that add pages to the property sheet, but most are specific to that purpose and you would usually know if you had installed such a thing. But, though time-consuming, you might try looking through Add/Remove to see if anything has been installed that affects the property sheet (You will only be able to identify it if the title is pretty clear).

I'd simply give you a copy of mine to use, but I have added quite a bit and it would take a while to track down what was there originally. I have an idea, though, and I'll let you know if it works. I'll have to wait for my next reboot to test it out.

I'm assuming that this happens to all your drives and not just one, but if it is only one, it might pay to try chkdsk and be sure that it doesn't crash due to a disk error. Running chkdsk /r takes a lot longer than chkdsk /f, but also is a lot more thorough.

 

[Elvandil]

My experiment didn't work. I removed the drive file associations to see whether XP would restore them on a reboot, but it didn't. My only suggestion is to look for something misconfigured under:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Drive\shellex\PropertySheetHandlers

or to export the key and post its contents here.

 

[Dumbledore]

Thanks elvandil for your time, and yes it is any drive letter that I right click on properties.
My experience is somewhat limited, so when you say to export the key, does that mean the whole HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT folder, or just the Property Sheet Handlers?
As a trial, I copied the Property Sheet Handlers to my desktop, but am unsure how to upload it.
No need to reply if you are to busy.
Thanks again

 

[mike5532g]

Just Property Sheet Handlers. Open the reg file in notepad, copy and paste it here.

Something else you might want to look at...
819101 - Temporary Decline in Performance Occurs When You Right-Click a File or Folder in Windows Explorer

 

[Dumbledore]

Thank you, I will check the 819101 item as well.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Drive\shellex\PropertySheetHandlers]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Drive\shellex\PropertySheetHandlers\Sharing]
@="{f81e9010-6ea4-11ce-a7ff-00aa003ca9f6}"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Drive\shellex\PropertySheetHandlers\{1F2E5C40-9550-11CE-99D2-00AA006E086C}]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Drive\shellex\PropertySheetHandlers\{5E44E225-A408-11CF-B581-008029601108}]
@="Roxio DragToDisc Shell Extension"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Drive\shellex\PropertySheetHandlers\{6615a4a0-1514-11d3-9eec-0004acdddb3b}]
@="INCDEX.DLL"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Drive\shellex\PropertySheetHandlers\{7988B573-EC89-11cf-9C00-00AA00A14F56}]
@=""

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Drive\shellex\PropertySheetHandlers\{ECCDF543-45CC-11CE-B9BF-0080C87CDBA6}]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Drive\shellex\PropertySheetHandlers\{fbeb8a05-beee-4442-804e-409d6c4515e9}]
@=""

 

[Elvandil]

OK. First step--go back to that registry key, right-click PropertySheetHandlers and choose Export from the menu. Choose a filename you will remember and save it somewhere safe. The .reg file ending will be added automatically.

It looks like you may have 2 packet-writing programs installed, InCD and DirectCD. Even one of those can lead to problems. Do you now, or have you had, both Roxio/Adaptec and Nero on that machine?

In the registry, under PropertySheetHandlers, right-click and delete these:

Roxio DragToDisc Shell Extension
INCDEX.DLL

Close regedit and try your right-click on a drive.

If it works, double-click on the reg file you exported and return the key to the way it was. Then, open regedit and delete just one of those keys (the one that corresponds to the software you no longer have or do not use).

 

[Dumbledore]

Yes I have Roxio and Nero on my computer.

I saved a copy of PropertySheetHandlers then went back to the registry and deleted:

Roxio DragToDisc Shell Extension
INCDEX.DLL

I then right clicked on a drive letter and it crashed as before.

I then clicked on the Handlers save, and returned it to the registry.

So it would appear that is not the problem.

Thaks again, any other suggestions ?

 

[Elvandil]

I'm pretty much out of ideas unless you feel like tracking each of those CLSID's to be sure they exist and haven't been removed (by a regcleaner?).

You should find them all under:
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID

And then, under each CLSID, the InprocServer32 key will reference (usually) a dll. Make sure all those exist.

Fun, huh?

I suppose the alternative is to reinstall everything that has made an entry in that menu, but that would mean your OS, Roxio, and Nero.

 

[Dumbledore]

Yes, I will do that, and appreciate your help