Windows XP: New drive or mapped network drive not available in Explorer

Synopsis:
Windows XP: New drive or mapped network drive not available in Explorer

Solution:
Microsoft has published a Knowledgebase article that documents the trouble when you create a new volume on a local disk or plug in a removable drive (for example, a USB floppy drive or PCMCIA flash card).

Symptoms are described as follows:

• an existing mapped network drive is no longer available in Windows Explorer
• the new drive is not available in Windows Explorer
• the new drive appears in Windows Explorer, but when you open it the contents of the existing drive are displayed
• the existing drive appears in Windows Explorer, but when you open it the contents of the new drive are displayed
• After your computer starts, the network drive may be replaced by the new drive
• After you disconnect the new drive, the mapped network drive letter has the same logical drive letter that it had before you added the new drive.
• You may receive the following error message when you start your computer "The local device name is already in use."