Mystery Drive (Q:)

[prc292]

Hello All,

I was hoping someone here might be able to help me out with this mystery. Recently i have had a hard drive show up on my system and have no idea where it came from. It's identified as Local Disk Q: when i click on computer in start menu or open Explorer with Windows+E command. I cant actually access the drive and it has 0 space available/used. I haven't installed any programs very recently or made any changes other than general maintenance. it just seems to have showed up for no reason. i do have a good knowledge of computer but by no means am i an expert so any ideas will be appreciated. let me know if any more info is needed, and thx in advance.

 

[Minotar]

Hello All,

I was hoping someone here might be able to help me out with this mystery. Recently i have had a hard drive show up on my system and have no idea where it came from. It's identified as Local Disk Q: when i click on computer in start menu or open Explorer with Windows+E command. I cant actually access the drive and it has 0 space available/used. I haven't installed any programs very recently or made any changes other than general maintenance. it just seems to have showed up for no reason. i do have a good knowledge of computer but by no means am i an expert so any ideas will be appreciated. let me know if any more info is needed, and thx in advance.

Probably a virtual drive.
Can you post a screen shot of your disk management?

 

[hunuok]

Hey there

I agree with ^

Did you install any virtual drives such as Daemon Tools or Poweriso?

 

[prc292]

No i haven't installed daemon tools on this system, although i do use the program on others. it's really weird because i haven't installed anything recently except for the Office 2010 beta. it was the home and business version. i cant see how that could have done it. but here is a capture of Disk Management. It dosen't show up there though. Also a capture of My Computer where it does show up. i hope these screen grabs are good. i honestly never uploaded any here before.

 

[Minotar]

No i haven't installed daemon tools on this system, although i do use the program on others. it's really weird because i haven't installed anything recently except for the Office 2010 beta. it was the home and business version. i cant see how that could have done it. but here is a capture of Disk Management. It dosen't show up there though. Also a capture of My Computer where it does show up. i hope these screen grabs are good. i honestly never uploaded any here before.

Odd:sarc:

What options do you get when you right click the Q drive?

 

[acurasd]

what happens when you take out the USB drive. does the Q: go away?

 

[prc292]

When i Right click the drive it just gives me the standard options like Expand,share,copy,format, and properties. but i cant open the drive. it says that it is not accessible. I clicked on format just for the heck of it and it says i don't have permission. Also, i did try shutting down the USB drive and no difference. here is a grab of the properties window.

 

[Bubby]

I bet you have a USB or network printer with a sd card slot.

Mystery solved?

 

[prc292]

Nope, the only thing hooked to this computer is a USB Hard Drive. It's an older computer mainly used for web surfing. it dosent have a card reader.

 

[hunuok]

Under control panel>device manager what is listed under disk drives and DVD/CD-ROM drives?

 

[prc292]

In device manager it shows my one disk and single cd drive. that is when my usb drive is turned off. here is a grab.

 

[brj]

do you have acronis installed ?
i had some problems with ghost drives on winxp with acronis true image.

jakob

 

[hunuok]

I recall having a similar problem with my external drive.

UNFORTUNATELY, I can't recall how I fixed the problem.

I think it involved formatting the drive then reconnecting.

 

[prc292]

no Acronis installed, and i now have the usb drive disconnected. it's still there. The mystery drive i mean. not sure what to do. The computer works fine, it just bothers me that it's there and not supposed to be. i like to keep things neat and well maintained on all my computers. oh well, if anyone has any more suggestions on how to get rid of this drive, it would be great. otherwise i guess ill just leave it be.

 

[hunuok]

I too like to keep my rig clean and lean.

I know it's frustrating and curious at the same time.

If things don't work for me....I FORMAT the damn thing and do a clean install!

Good luck.

 

[prc292]

This is one of those times where i regret not making that backup image as soon as i got things the way i wanted them after clean install. just wish they didnt take up so much space.

 

[hunuok]

lol

sorry to laugh at at your expense....BUT i once formatted and clean installed my rig 4 times in a week before learning to create a backup image DOH!

hope that makes you feel better

 

[smarteyeball]

because i haven't installed anything recently except for the Office 2010 beta.

Mystery solved.

For some reason (I can't remember why) but Office 2010 beta adds a virtual drive. That's where the Q: drive came from.

 

[brj]

you can try mountvol Q: /D to remove drive Q.

jakob

 

[prc292]

i tried that but it's still there. Although now it shows up in explorer with a question mark on it. that's new. try uninstalling office to see if that does anything.