Windows 10: System (Z:) partition suddenly showing up on Win10 PCs

I'm seeing reports in other forums about folks suddenly having a 256MB FAT32 SYSTEM (Z

partition appearing on their PCs!

One person did mention they had used a VPN app (which might have created this), but none of the others have done anything like that.

Anyone have any ideas we can investigate??

:)

 

Microsoft Assure

Looks like you're also experiencing a common Win10 glitch. Normally the ESP is a hidden partition you never see, but for some reason Win10 on some systems randomly assigns (and removes) a drive letter (Z for it. My suggestion would be to just ignore it.

 

Windows 10: Unknown System (Z Partition or Disk.

Drive shows in Explorer as Local Disk (Z, 141MB free of 256MB. Properties shows File System as FAT32. "You don't currently have permission to access this folder. Click continue to permanently get access to this folder." if I try to open it. Clicking Continue
brings up "You have been denied permission to access this folder. To gain access to this folder you will need to use the security tab." There is no security tab for the folder.

Running diskmgmt.msc as detailed above, no partition Z: is listed anywhere. The EFI System Partition, at Disk 0 partition 2 (marked as being 260MB) seems the most likely candidate.

This mystery Z: partition has appeared quite a few times in the past and generally disappears again after a reboot. Shouldn't be appearing at all, though.

 

Z is usually a Virtual Disk

 

OK ... but folk are wondering how it got there (since they say they did nothing) and when they try to access is or remove it, they get permission denied!

 

Any links to these posts?

 

By default Windows starts assigning the drive letter Z: to Networked drives such as a NAS/Network Attached Storage then works back up the alphabet for additional such drives. I have 2 NAS drives attached to my Router, first one was Z: and the second I added became Y:. All computers working through the Router can access the drives after they are Mapped.

 

There are others, but this is one I could find quickly: http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Noteboo...d/td-p/5587307

 

Look at disk management and if it's not there it has to be some virtual or network drive. If it is a partition on disk, you can take it's letter off.

 

256 MB is a pretty small partition, if it is physical.

 

Had one of that size on my SSD and it was for GC and LL and at one time after an update it suddenly got a letter. It was made by program for updating FW on that SSD.

 

I know, but auto assigning it a drive letter with such small space is pretty ridiculous. Seems the firmware update package did not mark the partition correctly, as in making it active during reboot so it could flash the firmware, but then making it inactive again so that Windows would not detect it.