Cannot Remove Hard Disk Controller in Device Manager (202393)



The information in this article applies to:

  • Microsoft Windows 98

This article was previously published under Q202393
If this article does not describe your hardware-related issue, please see the following Microsoft Web site to view more articles about hardware: IMPORTANT: This article contains information about modifying the registry. Before you modify the registry, make sure to back it up and make sure that you understand how to restore the registry if a problem occurs. For information about how to back up, restore, and edit the registry, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

256986 Description of the Microsoft Windows Registry

SYMPTOMS

When you try to remove a hard disk controller in Device Manager, you may receive the following message:
This device is part of a multi-function device and cannot be removed independently. To remove this device, select and remove the multi-function parent. This will also remove any other devices that are part of the multi-function device.

CAUSE

This behavior can occur if the parent device for the multi-function device has already been removed, and the child device is still displayed in Device Manager.

RESOLUTION

WARNING: If you use Registry Editor incorrectly, you may cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that you can solve problems that result from using Registry Editor incorrectly. Use Registry Editor at your own risk.


To resolve this issue, use Registry Editor to locate the following key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Enum\MF\CHILDxxxx

where xxxx represents the numeric value of the folder.

Delete the following folder under each CHILDxxxx device

PCI&VEN_8086&DEV_xxxx&SUBSYS_00000000&REV_00&BUS_00&DEV_0D&FUNC_01,

where xxxx is assigned a different value for different child devices related to the same parent.

This removes the child device from Device Manager and allows Windows 98 to properly detect and set up the hard disk controller.

This behavior may also occur in Windows 95. If you check hard disk controllers in Safe Mode Device Manager and see duplication of the child devices, you may need to delete the folders referred to in this article. You may need to delete the folders if you are removing the parent device(s) from Safe Mode Device Manager and the NOIDE key in the registry does not fix your problem.

Modification Type:MajorLast Reviewed:8/8/2006
Keywords:kbenv kbHardware kbprb KB202393