How to get rid of ghost drive in Windows?

few34fwfs · Jul 27, 2024

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 · Jul 27, 2024

Did you ever install any kind of Ram Disk software?

few34fwfs · Jul 27, 2024

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

No I have not

chrcoluk · Jul 27, 2024

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

few34fwfs · Jul 27, 2024

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 · Jul 27, 2024

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 · Jul 27, 2024

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 · Jul 27, 2024

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

few34fwfs · Jul 27, 2024

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 · Jul 28, 2024

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

few34fwfs · Jul 28, 2024

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 · Jul 28, 2024

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 · Jul 28, 2024

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 · Jul 28, 2024

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 · Jul 28, 2024

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 · Jul 28, 2024

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

few34fwfs · Jul 28, 2024

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!

eidairaman1 · Jul 28, 2024

few34fwfs said:
Yup diskpart did the job. I went to the par and then remove letter=E. Done. Thanks!

If you ever decide to reinstall windows later in time, make sure all other storage drives are disconnected

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System Name	Main PC
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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
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Audio Device(s)	Soundblaster AE-9
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Motherboard	Asrock Z690 Steel Legend D4 - Bios 13.02
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How to get rid of ghost drive in Windows?

few34fwfs

Good Guru

few34fwfs

chrcoluk

few34fwfs

chrcoluk

few34fwfs

chrcoluk

few34fwfs

chrcoluk

few34fwfs

chrcoluk

few34fwfs

chrcoluk

Solaris17

Super Dainty Moderator

Dr. Dro

few34fwfs

eidairaman1

The Exiled Airman

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