Windows 7 External Hard Drive Icon Broken

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minneola24

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Jul 5, 2009
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Hello, this icon is broken, how do I get it to look like an actually external HD?

It shows up like this on both of my computers running windows 7.

Link Removed due to 404 Error
 
Solution
to expose the protected operating system files you need to remove the check in the box from the box about three down from the show hidden files and folders radio button it actual say Hide protected operating system files (Recommended) and then remember when your done searching make sure to reverse this by putting the check mark back in the box and ticking the radio button that says Don't show hidden files, folders or drives.
Also while you're checking look also in the root of that drive for any files with a .ico extension you may want to rename them with a .old extension. In order to see the extensions you may have to uncheck the box that says Hide extensions for known file types.
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Check in the root of that external hard drive and see if there is a file called autorun.inf, if there, put it in a folder or rename or delete it, and make sure to scan the drive with a good antivirus and then a couple of good antimalware products.
 
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Trouble said:
Check in the root of that external hard drive and see if there is a file called autorun.inf, if there, put it in a folder or rename or delete it, and make sure to scan the drive with a good antivirus and then a couple of good antimalware products.
Click to expand...

Autorun.inf is nowhere to be found

And no viruses have been spotted
 
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Make sure you were showing hidden files and folder when you checked for that file and then:
If you are comfortable taking a look at the registry. Take a look at HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\DriveIcons
Also you can check
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Drive\DefaultIcon
and see if there is anything weird in there it should have a value of %SystemRoot%\System32\shell32.dll,8
I attached a screen shot from mine and the drive icons are displaying properly.
 
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Also check to make sure you are showing hidden files and folders as well as protected operating system files and then check the root of the external drive for a file called desktop.ini if it's there put in in a folder, rename it or delete it, reboot and see if that fixes the issue.
EDIT: Then make sure you remember to check the two boxes to hide hidden files and folders and protected operating system files when you're done.
 
Last edited:
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to expose the protected operating system files you need to remove the check in the box from the box about three down from the show hidden files and folders radio button it actual say Hide protected operating system files (Recommended) and then remember when your done searching make sure to reverse this by putting the check mark back in the box and ticking the radio button that says Don't show hidden files, folders or drives.
Also while you're checking look also in the root of that drive for any files with a .ico extension you may want to rename them with a .old extension. In order to see the extensions you may have to uncheck the box that says Hide extensions for known file types.
 
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Solution
Also, is there any way to change the icon? Its not broken but it would be nice if theres an easy way to change the icon, how do i do this?
 
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Yes, I'm sure that there are some Third party software programs that support various icon tweaks, unfortunately I don't know there names, but there are a lot of people out there that use them and can probably give you some info to point you in the right direction.
Sorry, but glad that your original problems is resolved and thanks for posting back and letting us know.
Randy
 
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