When I updated my USB HDD drives (one is a backup) from BIAB 2017 to 2018 I have "lost" the HDD ID icon on whichever drive I plug in. The program upgrade itself works fine but instead of the drive icon being the PG BIAB it just defaults to a non descript Windows one. Anyone any ideas on whether I can get the BB icons back please? I'm on Windows 7 (64 bit)

In the Autorun file in root of the HDD it reads: [autorun] ICON=bb\PGMICON.ICO,0 but this does not seem to be activating anything ?

Right Click on the icon > Properties > Select Icon.

Thanks for the fast reply Jim. When I R click on the HDD icon and pick Properties I can't find any Select Icon option ? Is that in a sub menu somewhere?

My Boo Boo Kev T,

By habit I told you the steps to reacquire a program icon on the desktop shortcut.

I'm not sure how to assign an icon for a temporary drive.

Please accept my apology. Hopefully someone will be along shortly to answer your question.

No problem Jim. Good of you to reply anyway. The icon is no big deal but it's good to have that instant ID as to what the content of that USB Drive is...and I'm just curious as to why the BB icon disappeared and whether I can restore it??

Have a great day.

Kev

Most security software disables AUTORUN.INF on USB drives and CD's, as it has been linked to virus infestation. I'm not really sure why they still get created and used, especially sing usually Windows Autoplay gives you a menu and asks you what you want to do.

Are you saying that you normally get an icon appearing on your desktop when you plug in the USB. On mine, I only get the Autoplay window (which I usually just close) and then go to Windows Explorer to run what I want to run.

Or are you saying that your BIAB or RealBand icon on the desktop changed. That can happen if the USB drive gets connected as a different drive letter than originally used, so the icons can't find the program to launch.

Do you consistently plug the USB into the same USB port. That can cause some weird stuff occasionally, too.

But if you can see the files on the drive, you should be able to run BIAB/RealBand with no problems.

Hi Kev,

On my Band-in-a-Box hard drive, I've got a file called "autorun.inf", and if I open it in Notepad, it contains the following text, which tells Windows which icon to use:

[autorun]
ICON=bb\PGMICON.ICO,0

So I'd check to make sure "autorun.inf" is still there, that the Band-in-a-Box folder on that drive is still called BB, and that the BB folder still contains PGMICON.ICO.

If "autorun.inf" is gone, you can recreate it using Notepad and the text above.

Thanks
Kent
PG Music

Good point. The reason is that the file referenced in the there (in the autorun) was moved to a subfolder by the Band-in-a-Box cleanup routine. You can edit the file and point it to:
bb\Data\Util\PGMICON.ICO
The change probably won't take effect until next time you plug the drive in.

Again, most modern anti-virus programs block autorun.inf because of possible virus infection. In fact, that's how Sony implemented their horrible root kit infection of computers to keep folks from ripping their CDs.

Autorun.inf History

It's something that should be done away with (even if somewhat convenient) as the potential for virus infection isn't worth the small amount of convenience.

Thank you very much John, Andrew and Kent. Interesting information...every bit of it!

Kent.....yes I did put in my original post that the autorun.inf file was showing the correct data..thanks

John.....yes I do normally use the same USB port as it's one of the two remaining unused ports I have out of six and the other one is a bit unreliable now!....but very interesting info about the Anti spyware/malware programs. There was no problem running BB but just the icon was missing. I have it arranged so that each drive plugged in (independently....not together) appears as drive F:

First prize on this occasion to Andrew! That seems to have done the trick so the Cleanup from 2018 looks to have moved the autorun file to the subfolder you described and editing the autorun.inf to read bb\Data\Util\PGMICON.ICOfile appears to have done the trick! Next time I plugged in either drive the BB icon was back.

Problem solved......thanks again for everyones input. Special thanks to Andrew.