How to get rid of ghost drive in Windows?

few34fwfs · 2024-07-27T22:18:56+0100

So I got a ghost drive of 96MB with the letter E on windows explorer. It is described as "local disk".
There is no partition on disk management with the letter E and that drive simply doesn't exist.
I don't have access to it and Windows tell me to use the security tab that it simply doesn't have.
It appeared half full when I decided to format it, I expected an error but I got none, and now it appears empty. Other than that nothing changed.
I rebooted the Windows but it's still there.
I assume it was created when I connected my PC with my tablet when it was on TWRP recovery tho I did nothing more than connecting it.
How do I get rid of it?

Good Guru · 2024-07-27T22:48:36+0100

Did you ever install any kind of Ram Disk software?

few34fwfs · 2024-07-27T22:49:58+0100

Good Guru said:
Did you ever install any kind of Ram Disk software?

No I have not

chrcoluk · 2024-07-27T22:51:15+0100

Load up disk management tool and see if anything on there has E: assigned to it.

few34fwfs · 2024-07-27T22:56:24+0100

chrcoluk said:
Load up disk management tool and see if anything on there has E: assigned to it.

"There is no partition on disk management with the letter E"

chrcoluk · 2024-07-27T23:15:11+0100

few34fwfs said:
"There is no partition on disk management with the letter E"

Ok load up device manager, and enable hidden devices.

Then expand storage volumes. You can also expand disk drives, and see what you see there.

I have a feeling it might be a virtual drive which hasnt cleaned up properly.

few34fwfs · 2024-07-27T23:26:16+0100

chrcoluk said:
Ok load up device manager, and enable hidden devices.

Then expand storage volumes. You can also expand disk drives, and see what you see there.

I have a feeling it might be a virtual drive which hasnt cleaned up properly.

OK I did that.
To my understanding the grey volumes and drives are inactive so we are not interested on those.
The drives look good. They are the drives I have.
It also appears to have 12 active volumes, but they all appear the same. They don't have any details on them.

chrcoluk · 2024-07-27T23:31:34+0100

What happens if you right click the drive, any unmount option for it?

few34fwfs · 2024-07-27T23:57:30+0100

chrcoluk said:
What happens if you right click the drive, any unmount option for it?

Uhm yeah but I didn't believe it was a drive. I thought it was a driver for sure so I rebooted on safe mode but the drive was still there!!!
Tho in safe mode the E drive is accessible to me and I can write on it.
So I started disabling drives from the device manager and lo and behold when I disabled a Samsung NVME the E drive disappeared.
Looking again on disk management that drive has an 100MB partition on it, but that partition has no letter assigned to it!!!
And that partition is the EFI system partition of another Windows installation that I have.
So if the E drive is the EFI from the other installation then I just formatted it....and I have no clue how it came to have a letter assigned...

chrcoluk · 2024-07-28T00:00:03+0100

Ok that explains things then, glad you got to the bottom of it.

few34fwfs · 2024-07-28T00:06:18+0100

chrcoluk said:
Ok that explains things then, glad you got to the bottom of it.

Well it still doesn't explain how it has a letter but at least we know what it is. Cheers for the help.

chrcoluk · 2024-07-28T00:10:07+0100

few34fwfs said:
Well it still doesn't explain how it has a letter but at least we know what it is. Cheers for the help.

It has a letter as Windows will get treat a EFI partition for another installation differently to its own. Didnt know before you revealed the cause you had two installations on different drives.

Likewise if you boot a live Windows rescue system, all EFI partitions get drive letters.

few34fwfs · 2024-07-28T00:15:24+0100

chrcoluk said:
It has a letter as Windows will get treat a EFI partition for another installation differently to its own. Didnt know before you revealed the cause you had two installations on different drives.

Likewise if you boot a live Windows rescue system, all EFI partitions get drive letters.

Even if that's the case why doesn't it show on disk management that it has a letter?

chrcoluk · 2024-07-28T00:23:53+0100

few34fwfs said:
Even if that's the case why doesn't it show on disk management that it has a letter?

Dont know about that, Windows probably confused.

Solaris17 · 2024-07-28T00:24:07+0100

few34fwfs said:
Even if that's the case why doesn't it show on disk management that it has a letter?

That was likely just a bug. You can actually assign and un-assign the letters at will. Windows by default doesnt during install because it references it by partition GUID but I have had it assign a letter after build updates etc. You likely would have seen it if you used diskpart. Or simply cleared the glitch by trying to assign, then un-assign in disk manager.

Otherwise I wouldn't recommend in the future you randomly format partitions you dont understand that windows makes. If this was an old windows install on a second drive that you aren't using for anything other than storage, you are likely fine.

If you had some kind of dual boot, you might have just destroyed it. Though in rare cases (not super likely) it was just the recovery partition.

Dr. Dro · 2024-07-28T00:38:20+0100

96 MB seems like EFI partition? Something like that. try assigning or removing it through diskpart

few34fwfs · 2024-07-28T00:51:38+0100

Dr. Dro said:
96 MB seems like EFI partition? Something like that. try assigning or removing it through diskpart

View attachment 356606

Yup diskpart did the job. I went to the par and then remove letter=E. Done. Thanks!

System Name	The Tempest
Processor	i7 5960x at 4.5ghz 1.255 bios vcore 3.4ghz cache 1.13v on custom water 1.85vin llc5
Motherboard	Asrock X99X Killer Fatality
Cooling	Swiftech DDC mcp50-x pump XSPC RaystormPro waterblock Acool xt45 Supernova1260 rad 9 140mmfans 1vrmF
Memory	32gb 4x8gb Kingston HyperX Fury (Micron rev.b) 2400mhz 15-15-15-35 @ 3200 16-19-19-36 2T 1.4v
Video Card(s)	AMD 6800 XT reference OC 2525~2625 1.1v mem oc 2150 Fast timing Alphacool Eisblock gpx waterblock
Storage	M.2 2 TB SSD Seagate 4tb 5400 Western Digital 6tb 7200
Display(s)	4k HDR TLC 43" 60hz TV
Case	Antec 900 Top fan 200mm/1side/2front/1rear 120mm AC Supernova 1260 rad 9/140mm fans 1700RPM 1VRM fan
Audio Device(s)	Onboard Realtech Logitech 5.1 surround/ Bluetooth headphones
Power Supply	Corsair RM1000i PSU
Mouse	Logitech
Keyboard	Logitech
Software	Windows 10 Pro
Benchmark Scores	Time Spy ~20000 Extreme 7800 Fire Strike 55000 Extreme 27415 Ultra 13604 Port Royal 10032

System Name	Main PC
Processor	13700k
Motherboard	Asrock Z690 Steel Legend D4 - Bios 13.02
Cooling	Noctua NH-D15S
Memory	32 Gig 3200CL14
Video Card(s)	4080 RTX SUPER FE 16G
Storage	1TB 980 PRO, 2TB SN850X, 2TB DC P4600, 1TB 860 EVO, 2x 3TB WD Red, 2x 4TB WD Red
Display(s)	LG 27GL850
Case	Fractal Define R4
Audio Device(s)	Soundblaster AE-9
Power Supply	Antec HCG 750 Gold
Software	Windows 10 21H2 LTSC

System Name	Main PC
Processor	13700k
Motherboard	Asrock Z690 Steel Legend D4 - Bios 13.02
Cooling	Noctua NH-D15S
Memory	32 Gig 3200CL14
Video Card(s)	4080 RTX SUPER FE 16G
Storage	1TB 980 PRO, 2TB SN850X, 2TB DC P4600, 1TB 860 EVO, 2x 3TB WD Red, 2x 4TB WD Red
Display(s)	LG 27GL850
Case	Fractal Define R4
Audio Device(s)	Soundblaster AE-9
Power Supply	Antec HCG 750 Gold
Software	Windows 10 21H2 LTSC

System Name	Main PC
Processor	13700k
Motherboard	Asrock Z690 Steel Legend D4 - Bios 13.02
Cooling	Noctua NH-D15S
Memory	32 Gig 3200CL14
Video Card(s)	4080 RTX SUPER FE 16G
Storage	1TB 980 PRO, 2TB SN850X, 2TB DC P4600, 1TB 860 EVO, 2x 3TB WD Red, 2x 4TB WD Red
Display(s)	LG 27GL850
Case	Fractal Define R4
Audio Device(s)	Soundblaster AE-9
Power Supply	Antec HCG 750 Gold
Software	Windows 10 21H2 LTSC

System Name	Main PC
Processor	13700k
Motherboard	Asrock Z690 Steel Legend D4 - Bios 13.02
Cooling	Noctua NH-D15S
Memory	32 Gig 3200CL14
Video Card(s)	4080 RTX SUPER FE 16G
Storage	1TB 980 PRO, 2TB SN850X, 2TB DC P4600, 1TB 860 EVO, 2x 3TB WD Red, 2x 4TB WD Red
Display(s)	LG 27GL850
Case	Fractal Define R4
Audio Device(s)	Soundblaster AE-9
Power Supply	Antec HCG 750 Gold
Software	Windows 10 21H2 LTSC

System Name	Rocinante
Processor	I9 14900KS
Motherboard	MSI MPG Z790I Edge WiFi Gaming
Cooling	be quiet! Pure Loop 240mm
Memory	64GB Gskill Trident Z5 DDR5 6000
Video Card(s)	MSI SUPRIM Liquid X 4090
Storage	1x 500GB 980 Pro \| 1x 1TB 980 Pro \| 1x 8TB Corsair MP400
Display(s)	Odyssey OLED G9 (G95SC)
Case	LANCOOL 205M MESH Snow
Audio Device(s)	Moondrop S8's on schitt Modi+ & Valhalla 2
Power Supply	ASUS ROG Loki SFX-L 1000W
Mouse	Lamzu Atlantis mini (White)
Keyboard	Monsgeek M3 Lavender, Akko Crystal Blues
VR HMD	Quest 3
Software	openSUSE Tumbleweed
Benchmark Scores	I dont have time for that.

System Name	"Icy Resurrection"
Processor	13th Gen Intel Core i9-13900KS Special Edition
Motherboard	ASUS ROG MAXIMUS Z790 APEX ENCORE
Cooling	Noctua NH-D15S upgraded with 2x NF-F12 iPPC-3000 fans and Honeywell PTM7950 TIM
Memory	32 GB G.SKILL Trident Z5 RGB F5-6800J3445G16GX2-TZ5RK @ 7600 MT/s 36-44-44-52-96 1.4V
Video Card(s)	ASUS ROG Strix GeForce RTX™ 4080 16GB GDDR6X White OC Edition
Storage	500 GB WD Black SN750 SE NVMe SSD + 4 TB WD Red Plus WD40EFPX HDD
Display(s)	55-inch LG G3 OLED
Case	Pichau Mancer CV500 White Edition
Power Supply	EVGA 1300 G2 1.3kW 80+ Gold
Mouse	Microsoft Classic Intellimouse
Keyboard	Galax Stealth STL-03
Software	Windows 11 IoT Enterprise LTSC 24H2
Benchmark Scores	I pulled a Qiqi~

How to get rid of ghost drive in Windows?

Super Dainty Moderator