>Hi Neil (and the others I CCed),
>
>I backed up the drive's content under SAFE MODE and all went well.
>
>No, there is no USB device that is masquarading as E:. However, I do believe, when I set this all up, that I did use Disk Management to re-assign the drive letters. But that was a year+ ago and never a problem encountered.
>
>I've neglected to mention that this is Win XP SP2 with fixes to July XX incorporated.
>
>Do any of you know what "Repair" does... I *think* the WinXP CD offers a "Repair" option but I have no idea what it's supposed to do?
>
>Also FYI, as soon as anything needs to reference the E: drive (for instance, my automatic backup of OutLook 2003 needs it) open applications continue to work but nothing will stop or start and I have to use the power off button to shut her down. The start bar disappears too.

"Repair" on the XP CD basically repairs your installation of XP (usually in C:\Windows). It won't touch E:.

Is there any indication your drive is failing? Messages in the System Event Log? Errors reported with Scandisk (try surface scan option) or chkdsk /f? You might Google the make/model of the HD to see if anyone's reporting a higher-than-expected problem or failure rate.

>
>
>>Hi,
>>No, it is in computer management/disk management.
>>JAG, Have you plugged USB pen/thumb drive in that is set to drive E: ?
>>
>>>Hi Neil,
>>>
>>>I assume you mean Device Manager in "System" of Control Panel.
>>>
>>>There both "Disk drives" and "IDE/ATA/ATAPI controllers" show no red/yellow markers and d-clicking on either shows "The device is working properly".
>>>
>>>Very strange... and really messing me up, since all my own work is on that drive.
>>>
>>>
>>>>Hi,
>>>>What status does Disk Management report about the drive.
>>>>
>>>>>I'm having a strange problem with my E: drive, which is not partitioned and a separate drive by itself.
>>>>>
>>>>>When I click on it or its plus-sign in Explorer the system just sits there and I cannot start or stop anything. I can get the Task Manager using Crtl-Alt-Del but no reactions if I try to end a task or shutdown.
>>>>>
>>>>>If I just rt-click on the drive in Explorer I *DO* get the properties displayed!!!
>>>>>
>>>>>However, I can access the drive normally in SAFE MODE.
>>>>>I ran a chkdsk on it and some repairs were reported.
>>>>>I have removed (under safe mode) the specification to have the page file on it.
>>>>>Still no joy.
>>>>>
>>>>>Any ideas as to what's up?
>>>>>
>>>>>Thanks