Hide empty drives in the Computer folder

[AGlobalThreatsK]

I originally wanted this disabled, so I unchecked the box and applied the changes so I could see all the drives. I have since realized I would rather NOT see the drives unless they are occupied with a device, but when I recheck the box and apply the settings, the drives are still there. I've tried changing it and changing it back several times but no matter what I do the drives are still showing up in the Computer folder.

 

[limneos]

Hello AGlobalThreatsK

Have you tried right-clicking the empty drives, to see if there's an option to "Eject" them?

 

[AGlobalThreatsK]

Yes the option to eject is there. It's a media reader that comes up as 4 drives, all 4 are empty.

 

[Brink]

Hi AGlobalThreatsK,

Have you already tried the Safely Remove Hardware option on them from the notification area?

 

[AGlobalThreatsK]

That removes the drives, but the safely remove hardware icon is still displayed, and as soon as I restart all the empty drives appear again.

 

[limneos]

I believe the "hide empty drives" options refers to drives that are actually mounted, but their content is empty. So for devices like card readers, you must have plugged in the card , and if it's empty , then it shall be hidden.
Otherwise, the available devices to mount are shown... Just a thought.

 

[AGlobalThreatsK]

Thats what I thought it was for also. The card readers are empty but are showing up in My Computer even though I have the option set to "Hide empty drives in My Computer".

 

[TauTau]

same problem here, has anyone found a solution yet?

 

[bug]

I had the same problem. Even when "Hide empty drives" was checked, they'd still show up. I figured out the reason:

As I was tweaking Windows 7, I disabled the "Shell Hardware Detection" service. However, by doing so, Windows no longer automatically checks to see if the drives are being used or not and therefore it doesn't hide the drives. By restarting the service, they will become hidden once again.

Cheers!

 

[TauTau]

That can't be the problem in my case, that service is enabled and running...

 

[AGlobalThreatsK]

That could have been it for me, I always disable that service on my computers.

 

[Mombodog]

Solution:

If the folder option "Show All Folders" (General Tab) is ticked, it will display empty drives regardless of the other setting.

I think this is a bug myself.

.

 

[Qdos]

My cardreader annoyed me under XP in this fashion. It's well worth modding the USB cable to include a switch, in my case I managed to incorporate the switch within the fascia of the cardreader - all I do is turn it on whenever I use it, avoids all the clutter in 'my computer...'

You need to switch the USB power supply cable, nothing else...

 

[ingredients1]

I was finding a solution to this problem on yahoo.com and chanced upon this thread. I decided to poke around in "Folder Options" a little after that and found something that I did not notice before.

The option to show/hide hidden files and folders ALSO shows/hides hidden drives in Windows 7. Therefore, if you wish to hide empty drives, you have to make sure that "Don't show hidden files, folders or drives" is checked AND "Hide empty drives in the Computer folder" is checked. I do not know of a way to only show hidden files and folders while hiding hidden drives though...

Hope this helps.

 

[c627627]

How about:

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/155795-drive-hide-unhide.html

or

TweakUI > My Computer > Drives > UNCHECK drives you wish to temporarily hide.