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    labels for drives (My Computer) disappeared -how get back?

    Discussion in 'Windows OS and Software' started by mouser10, Nov 1, 2010.

  1. mouser10

    mouser10 Notebook Enthusiast

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    I have a thinkpad T500 with XP Pro 32.

    I attached an external hard drive via USB, which I have done dozens of times before on this laptop. This time, the computer got very sluggish and even would not show any mouse pointer for a few seconds. It popped-up saying about not plugged into a USB2 slot, click to see a list...

    I unplugged it from that USB slot, and plugged it in another. Everything now works fine as usual.

    However, in My Computer, thumbnail view, the drives have no labels showing. When I go into My Documents and use thumbnail view, the labels are there as usual.


    1. How do I get the labels back
    2. What happened (so I can avoid it in the future)?

    I believe the drive I attached via USB is functioning fine. I was a blank drive, so there's no OS or anything that could try to run and cause issues I think.


    This link
    http://thedailyreviewer.com/xphelp/view/filename-labels-dissappear-for-thumbnail-view-after-control-click-1011828481
    is saying that the registry was changed?
     

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    mouser10, Nov 1, 2010
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  2. gerryf19

    gerryf19 I am the walrus

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    right click the drive choose properties. type in the label
     
    gerryf19, Nov 1, 2010
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  3. mouser10

    mouser10 Notebook Enthusiast

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    hi,

    there were already labels on the drives.

    I fixed it by doing a R&R restore (thinkpad utility). 30 minutes later all is well.

    My best guess is that the hard drive connected via USB was faulty in some way.

    It's also a good alert on why to use backups, and good practice to see how to do a restore.
     
    mouser10, Nov 1, 2010
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  4. codester

    codester Notebook Consultant

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    This is actually a hidden feature in Windows XP where you can hide the file names. To hide the file names, first change the view to something other than Thumbnails, such as Tiles, Icons, List, etc. Then change it back to Thumbnails while holding down the Shift key. Repeating the steps to make the file names show again. The same can be done by holding Shift while opening folders, or My Computer.

    Show/Hide Filenames in XP Thumbnails View - Omar Shahine's WebLog - Site Home - MSDN Blogs
     
    codester, Nov 1, 2010
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  5. mouser10

    mouser10 Notebook Enthusiast

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    Maybe I accidentally hit the shift key.

    Is there any way attaching a formatted blank hard drive could change this? If not, that'd give me peace of mind knowing the hard drive is not a risk.
     
    mouser10, Nov 1, 2010
    #5