Run line...
%SystemRoot%\system32\compmgmt.msc /s

look around in there under the disk managent, might look in the Event Viewer logs too while its open.

If mickie's suggestion does not do the trick you might try shutting down completely and restarting - not a reboot but shut down completely. Ask your friend if he removed the card from the reader the correct way or simply pulled it out. There is an icon near the clock to be used when removing an external drive.

MIKIE :
I will go over to his house tomorrow and give your suggestion a try. Thank you ,
OWBIST: I did ask him all the pertinent questions. And of course he denies doing anything incorrectly. As for the icon in the right hand task bar. It is gone. It used to be there and I ask him if he somehow clicked on it and shut it off or deleted it. He swears he did not. I also opened the tower and checked for any loose cables just in case it might have come unplugged in any way. Everything is tightly plugged.My discernment is, that in My Computer where it used to show all of his card reader drives

Dian the icon near the clock is not usually present - not on my computer anyway - unless there is an external drive attached. My card reader is built into my printer and on odd occasions refuses permission to remove the camera card so I just shut the printer down and remove it. This avoids potential damage, although I have never really read of anyone who has had data lost by just removing the card

I have both an HP laptop (2 1/2 years old) and an HP desktop (2 months old) both running xp home and both having the builtin card readers. With the laptop I had to click on the "remove safely" icon and when I first used the card reader on my new desktop I did the same and clicked "stop". Well I had the same problems with card reader not working! Thats when I got out the instructions (lol) and read to just remove the card when there was no blinking light next to the card slot. Turning off the computer (not rebooting) did the trick and I was able to again use the builtin card reader.

BTW, I read in another post about using a card reader and it was recommended the user delete the photos from the card via the computer. I was advised a long time ago when I got into digital cameras to NOT delete photos with the computer and to always delete photos in the camera after downloading. Card readers and even with the camera connected to the computer for downloading have been known to ruin cards when deleting photos this way.

Mikie:
I went to the run, and entered all you told me to.Went to disk manager. The drives for the card reader are not present in there.Also went to event viewer,There are several errors showing , but none of them seem to refer to any thing about card reader drives.I believe all the errors are from windows defender. As it kept popping up and wanted to be reinstalled as the beta was no longer working. I simply went to control panel and uninstalled the Windows defender. But I do know that all the problems with the reader drives came due to another problem. Nothing to do with deletion of Defender.As for rebooting. That is always the first thing I always try. Shutting down, waiting and then restart.There is just no sign at all, of the computer ever having anything such as a card reader. Is it possible that the drives just went bad. And completely uninstalled itself. We tryed three different sized camera cards in it. And none of them show up in a drive anywhere. So I know it is not just a bad card. I probably could reinstall the drives from the windows disk. But the disks are a self burn from a backup that HP puts in programs. So it does not tell which of the disks are the drives disk. TY all for your efforts in helping me. Dian

msm84 wote:- BTW, I read in another post about using a card reader and it was recommended the user delete the photos from the card via the computer. I was advised a long time ago when I got into digital cameras to NOT delete photos with the computer and to always delete photos in the camera after downloading. Card readers and even with the camera connected to the computer for downloading have been known to ruin cards when deleting photos this way.

I have written about always deleting my photos after they are transferred to my computer. This has never ever caused me any problems yet I have done it ever since getting a digital camera long ago. In fact many have recommended using the computer rather than doing it in the camera to conserve the camera battery life. The camera memory card is seen as nothing more than another drive by the computer and treated the same way.

owbist, I agree about saving the camera batteries and that is another reason I have never connected any of my cameras to the computer for downloading photos. Besides the chance of a low battery durning transfer can cause big problems! The advise I have always gone by is to have fresh (or recharged) batteries when deleting or formatting cards in the camera. I have never had a problem with it eating to much power from the batteries doing it this way. I do understand that the memory card is basically a storage device, but the way each camera deletes/formats can be unique in the way it performs this procedure and therefore should be done in the camera which took the photos. Here is a little quote I found at one of the photography forums:

"The "rules" are

Only format your card in the camera that will use the card.

Only delete your pics in the camera.

Remember to observe the handling protocol with regard to static and your card and never touch the contacts.

Some folk will tell you that they do not follow these "rules" and have not had any problems.

Some folk drink and drive and have not been caught, YET."

Just some food for thought from some who takes 600-800 photos per week as a track photographer ;o)

Yes, I would always format my card in the computer it is to be used in. Ha ha, never thought of a battery running low during the transfer, a very real possibility there for sure.

I wonder if there really are penalties or benefits with either method of transfer? Probably 6 of one and half dozen of the other if we really got down to it.

Thanks for the post, always willing to learn more 'stuff' plus it is always interesting to read other users viewpoints.

"Yes, I would always format my card in the computer it is to be used in" I like that.....good answer *lol*

When I started using digial media I read every forum about photography I could and the answer about taking care of your media cards from the pro's was always the same like what I stated above. I guess I just don't want to take any chances because my media cards and my cameras are very important to me and their performance means "money" in my case.

Later.........MsM84 "Photos by Ms.Mary"

Ouch, you caught my error, I should have said I format my cards in the cameras they will be used in. Been a long day..............

Now back to the problem at hand; I found this link about the HP builtin card readers and thought it might help.

Here is a link that might be useful: Trouble shooting HP card reader problems