Windows 10: Mysterious drive Z: appears!

Hello every one, have a good day!
Here i come with my recent problem as in thread title.

Recently i found a Z: drive that i cannot acces or modify it in any way.
Here is some data that i gathered:

Code: DISKPART> detail disk Hitachi HTS541010A9E680 Disk ID: {C0F04480-1D8C-4C58-B5F0-FFA6AEEAD2BB} Type : RAID Status : Online Path : 4 Target : 0 LUN ID : 0 Location Path : PCIROOT(0)#PCI(1F02)#RAID(P04T00L00) Current Read-only State : No Read-only : No Boot Disk : No Pagefile Disk : No Hibernation File Disk : No Crashdump Disk : No Clustered Disk : No Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info ---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- --------- -------- Volume 1 D NTFS Partition 90 GB Healthy Volume 2 E APPS NTFS Partition 195 GB Healthy Volume 3 F DATA NTFS Partition 644 GB Healthy Volume 4 Odzyskiwani NTFS Partition 300 MB Healthy Hidden * Volume 5 Z FAT32 Partition 100 MB Healthy System[/quote] Code: Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.14393] (c) 2016 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. C:\Windows\system32>takeown /F Z:\ /A /R /D Y ERROR: The parameter is incorrect.[/quote]




there is no security tab available neither that drive is listed in diskmgmt.msc.

Please help me to explain what this bizzare creation is and how to get rid of it.

:)

 

new drive named local disk(z) is appearing

Solved... at least for me.

I tried some of the other suggested methods to get rid of "local disk (z) with no success.

However, a simple System Restore to an earlier version removed the mystery disk Z: completely.

 

Mysterious Z drive

Hi, it is amazing how my Z drive query opened whole W 10 subjects. All interesting but on the fan: Get compressed gas can they are quite expensive but believe me it saved my old PC for another 3 years of service. After my fan started to go on full most
of the time, I just blasted into the vents (no need to open PC) and cloud of dust come out. The fan got freed and the PC run OK for another number of years.

On W 10 in general: Cannot really comment because I got the new PC with W 10 and all runs excellent. Probably the upgrades from the previous OSs on the same PCs are bit different.

 

Welcome to the forum that is the boot drive for your UEFI drive you should in assign the drive letter and don't touch it in any way or you won't boot it's normal but should be hidden

 

Ok, found this much since posted:



Any ideas how come it suddenly appeared?
What can I do to make it genuine hidden again?

 

HP Support Assistant creates this Z drive and it appears whenever I run "Check for updates and messages" It disappears after a restart. Nothing to worry about and lose sleep on it.

 

Continuing on the mysterious Z drive, it is found the HP Support Assistant gives the drive letter Z to the 260 MB EFI System Partition

AOMEI Backupper when No Z drive is created





AOMEI Backupper after HP Support Assistant created Z drive during the check for updates process. Note the 260MB EFI System Partition is now the Z drive.





It is also noted that when the Z drive is present Device Manager shows 8 WAN Miniports under Network Adapters.





Though there has been many queries on this Z drive in HP Support forum there is no official explanation on this. Some of the explanations given by HP Support Agents are found ridiculous.

Whatever, it is now proved beyond doubt that it is the EFI System Partition that takes on the Z drive letter and therefore no attempt should be made to delete it.

On my system, after closing the HP Support Assistant and restarting the notebook, the Z drive vanishes. This has been consistent.

However one should take care not to give drive letter Z to any mapped drive or any partition created that would clash with the Z drive created by HPSA.

 

Hi @jumanji
In my case, the reg edit from eightforums didn't work; also removing HP Support program didn't work.
My Z drive appears as the same size/same used amount as the OS drive.





The multiple network adapters are not present on here either.
I created a new user, and the Z drive does not appear in the new user account.

I know there was an issue about 1 month ago, where Avast had updated its program, the system had not been rebooted for a while (always sleeping), and Fast Startup was ON. The system was rebooted, and it booted into a temporary user. I eventually fixed things, but it appears that this problem remains (not positive if this is related or not). Any suggestions? Thanks.

 

I really have no idea of Avast connection with the Z drive but vaguely remember having read somewhere that there is an Avast connection though the Z drive is primarily created by HP Support Assistant. You may have to do more research on it *Smile. I am only happy that the Z drive does not stick to my - rather my wife's - HP Notebook.Some of these problems can really make one go mad.

 

Well, I created 2 new users, and neither one of them have the Z drive showing, so I am assuming this user account has been corrupted. I completely uninstalled Avast, and the Z-drive persists in this one account. I'll just copy the files over from the corrupt account to one of the new accounts, delete the corrupt user account, and be done with it. *Wink