New Local Disk (Z:) appeared?

Bobthebass

New Member
Messages
6
Sometime in the last few days, a new drive seems to have appeared in This PC.

The new drive is Local Disk (Z: ) and is 256 MB in size (162 free). I do not have access to the drive.

The drive does NOT appear in Disk Management.

Googling suggested it might be a mapped temp folder, but SUBST showed up nothing.

As for as I can recall I haven't installed anything recently.

I am running virus and malware scans at the moment.

Any suggestions?


Bob

disks.jpg

UPDATE: Although I cannot access the drive myself, I could see some of the folder names as Avast scanned it. It has folders such as :

Z:\EFI\Microsoft
Z:\EFI\HP
 
Last edited:

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    8.1
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    HP
    CPU
    A6-5200
    Memory
    8 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Radeon HD 8400
    Browser
    Opera, FF, Chrome
    Antivirus
    Avast
Why has it suddenly appeared as Z?

And can I hide it again?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    8.1
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    HP
    CPU
    A6-5200
    Memory
    8 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Radeon HD 8400
    Browser
    Opera, FF, Chrome
    Antivirus
    Avast
Yes, just hide the drive, and as samuria suggested, don't mess with it. As for why, I don't know, but there have been a lot of posts lately here and in the Windows 10 Forum with the same thing happening.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8 Pro
I don't recall installing anything.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    8.1
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    HP
    CPU
    A6-5200
    Memory
    8 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Radeon HD 8400
    Browser
    Opera, FF, Chrome
    Antivirus
    Avast
I don't recall installing anything.

You probably have HP Support Assistant enabled ?? - I know that if you have it enabled or start it then it shows the Z: drive, which will disappear on a re-boot. p.s. have a HP EliteDesk800 G1 and Support Assistant comes with the pre-loaded HP software
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Win8.1 Pro x32 (DT) & Win8.1 x32 (T)
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    HP Pro 3000 SFF & ASUS T100
Ah - I do have HP Support on the PC. That probably explains it.

But it just seems a bit strange that it hasn't done this in 2,5 years before. Although I have a vague recollection that HP Support maybe had an update in the last couple of months.

And in my case, Z is not disappearing on reboot.

Any harm in disabling the HP Support to see if rebooting then makes Z disappear again?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    8.1
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    HP
    CPU
    A6-5200
    Memory
    8 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Radeon HD 8400
    Browser
    Opera, FF, Chrome
    Antivirus
    Avast
It is by now almost established that HP Support Assistant is responsible for the creation of this mysterious Local drive Z:. On my new HP laptop running Windows 10 64bit , which I am still setting up - I have just completed all updates including the Anniversary Update. I had created a manual System Restore point "after all the updates" and was in the process of installing the applications. At this point I ran HP Support Assistant but closed it midway as its analysis was taking a long time and it was late night yesterday/early morning today . ( I went to bed after midnight :D )

Normally I do not click on "My Pc" but after a few hours, rather a few hours back I just did that and saw the Z: drive. My web search confirmed that it is the HP Support Assistant the culprit. I restored my system to the restore point I created "after all updates" and the Z; drive vanished.

During the web search I came across this interesting youtube video. ( Basically it just hides the drive but in some cases it appears to be reappearing. The permanent solution: if you can't put up with it, uninstall the HP Support Assistant.)

[video=youtube;cj7XcaoGJm0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cj7XcaoGJm0[/video]
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 7 Ultimate 32bit
Don't mess as samuria said, it is the boot partition.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10 Pro x64 + macOS 10.15 Catalina
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    CPU
    AMD Ryzen 7 2700
    Motherboard
    ASUS PRIME B450-PLUS
    Memory
    32gb Corsair Vengance LPX 4x 8gb 3000MHz
    Graphics Card(s)
    MSI Reference Radeon RX 5700
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Viewsonic XG2705-2K 27in 1440p 144hz + Samsung C24F390 24in 1080p 60hz
    Screen Resolution
    2560x1440 + 1920x1080
    Hard Drives
    Transcend 500gb NVME
    Seagate 2tb drive
    2x Western Digital 1tb drives
    Crucial 250gb SATA SSD
    PSU
    Cooler Master 600w
    Case
    Corsair iCUE 4000x
    Cooling
    AMD Stock Cooler + 6x Corsair SP120 RGB Pro
    Keyboard
    Razer Blackwidow X Chroma
    Mouse
    Logitech G502 Proteus Spectrum
    Internet Speed
    Zen Internet 70mbps
    Browser
    Google Chrome
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