Comment 8 for bug 92680

Eugenia, perhaps this procedure will help you to get what you want:

Launch (via Alt + F2 or terminal) the application 'gconf-editor'. Then, browse in the left tree at apps > nautilus > desktop, and unmark the key 'volumes_visible'. By the way, you can mark the keys 'comuter_icon_visible', and so on if you like these icons in your desktop (I do).

Anyway, I agree that this bug is not a duplicate of #73227, because it talks about showing icons on desktop and #73227 about showing them at the Places menu.