Windows xp hard drive duplicate issue

[jltorre3]

I have a windowsXP system with one physical hard drive. Unfortunately, windows thinks I have three physical harddrives, because three drive letters show up in the explorer.

This seems like a recipe for a nasty mess.

Potentially complicating things further is a linux partition on that harddrive, which works fine via a dual boot system. Linux doesn't think there are multiple drives....

How do I consolidate down to one?

I've tried existing web solutions, such as using regedit to delete the mount entry under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices - that typically results in having to repair windowsXP.

I've tried chkdsk /x or chkdsk /f - this says it can't unmount my boot disk.
I've tried devmgmt.msc - this doesn't see the duplication.

Maybe I did one of the things above wrongly. CLearly, i haven't done the right thing yet.

 

[hang-the-9]

What is probably happening is that your one drive is partitioned into 3 parts.

Did you inherit this system from someone? Is there data on the other drive letters? How large are the drives?

 

[jltorre3]

They're all the same size with what appears to be the same content.

 

[hang-the-9]

Just noticed you said there was Linux also installed on the same drive. Is there a partition for that or was it just installed? Wondering if Windows is having an issue with the Linux setup.

Have you tried re-seating the cables?