[SOLVED] USB Drive showing up as a local drive?

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Solution
Ralston18
Disk Management and Get-Disk are in agreement.

If there are no other installed drives then that is what would be expected.

However, if the ghost/phantom USD drive is still present then you can try "diskpart".

Link

https://www.ubackup.com/windows-10/ghost-hard-drive-windows-10-1122.html

Scroll down the link to

How to remove Ghost or Phantom Hard Drive in Windows 10

Follow the procedure down doing all but the "remove letter" bullet in Step 2.

The results will appear much as is shown below (from my PC with computer name redacted):

= = = =

PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> diskpart

Microsoft DiskPart version 10.0.19041.964

Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation.
On computer: XXXX

DISKPART> list volume

Volume...
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In the lower right screen corner you should see a upward pointing > icon.

Left click the icon.

In the window that appears there should be a USB icon (actually looks more like a mouse...)

Left click that icon.

There should an "Eject USB Mass Storage Device"

And listed as E:.

Click to eject. A window should appear notifying you that the USB drive can be safely removed.
 
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Ralston18 said:
In the lower right screen corner you should see a upward pointing > icon.

Left click the icon.

In the window that appears there should be a USB icon (actually looks more like a mouse...)

Left click that icon.

There should an "Eject USB Mass Storage Device"

And listed as E:.

Click to eject. A window should appear notifying you that the USB drive can be safely removed.
Click to expand...
I am aware of ejecting, the issue is that it looks as though windows mistakens the boot drive as having been local storage. I've also tried putting the usb back in and ejecting, but that doesn't work either. I also tried resetting from the computer, but that didn't work either. I may have to just try formatting the usb, copying the clean installation into the usb again, and trying once more to reboot.
 
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Reinstalling Windows:

Two things:

1) Procedure:

https://forums.tomshardware.com/faq/windows-10-clean-install-tutorial.3170366/

2) Note Step 5. in the procedure:

"5. Temporarily disconnect ALL other hard drives except the primary drive that windows will be installed to. With the power turned off, simply disconnect ALL other internal drives from the motherboard SATA headers or external drives from their USB ports, except the flash drive or optical drive to be used DURING the installation process. This step will prevent the possibility of accidentally deleting any files or partitions from those drives when preparing the primary drive for the Windows installation. "
 
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Ralston18 said:
Reinstalling Windows:

Two things:

1) Procedure:

https://forums.tomshardware.com/faq/windows-10-clean-install-tutorial.3170366/

2) Note Step 5. in the procedure:

"5. Temporarily disconnect ALL other hard drives except the primary drive that windows will be installed to. With the power turned off, simply disconnect ALL other internal drives from the motherboard SATA headers or external drives from their USB ports, except the flash drive or optical drive to be used DURING the installation process. This step will prevent the possibility of accidentally deleting any files or partitions from those drives when preparing the primary drive for the Windows installation. "
Click to expand...
This has not worked. Despite locally resetting the computer as well as recreating the boot disk and clean installing again, it continues to show a non-existent USB local drive under "This PC".
 
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Ralston18 said:
Open the Disk Management and expand the window to show all listed drives. Take a screen shot and post here using imgur (www.imgur.com)

What is the drive letter for the non-existent USB drive?

Is the drive letter = F: referencing the ESD-USB drive?

Also open Powershell as admin and run the Cmdlet

Get-Disk

Reference:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/storage/get-disk?view=windowsserver2022-ps

Example 1.

You should be able to copy and paste results.
Click to expand...
https://imgur.com/a/LUTfiEd
 
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The current drive letter for the nonexistent drive was D: and is now E: (after having tried to reinstall windows). The drive letter F: is the actual USB that was used to cleanly install Windows on it.
 
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Ralston18 said:
Open the Disk Management and expand the window to show all listed drives. Take a screen shot and post here using imgur (www.imgur.com)

What is the drive letter for the non-existent USB drive?

Is the drive letter = F: referencing the ESD-USB drive?

Also open Powershell as admin and run the Cmdlet

Get-Disk

Reference:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/storage/get-disk?view=windowsserver2022-ps

Example 1.

You should be able to copy and paste results.
Click to expand...
https://imgur.com/a/yZQMEeN
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Disk Management and Get-Disk are in agreement.

If there are no other installed drives then that is what would be expected.

However, if the ghost/phantom USD drive is still present then you can try "diskpart".

Link

https://www.ubackup.com/windows-10/ghost-hard-drive-windows-10-1122.html

Scroll down the link to

How to remove Ghost or Phantom Hard Drive in Windows 10

Follow the procedure down doing all but the "remove letter" bullet in Step 2.

The results will appear much as is shown below (from my PC with computer name redacted):

= = = =

PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> diskpart

Microsoft DiskPart version 10.0.19041.964

Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation.
On computer: XXXX

DISKPART> list volume

Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info
---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- --------- --------
Volume 0 E DVD-ROM 0 B No Media
Volume 1 D Dell Data NTFS Partition 465 GB Healthy
Volume 2 C OS NTFS Partition 224 GB Healthy Boot
Volume 3 ESP FAT32 Partition 650 MB Healthy System
Volume 4 WINRETOOLS NTFS Partition 990 MB Healthy Hidden
Volume 5 Image NTFS Partition 11 GB Healthy Hidden
Volume 6 DELLSUPPORT NTFS Partition 1093 MB Healthy Hidden
Volume 7 F XXXX_Backup NTFS Partition 110 GB Healthy
Volume 8 NTFS Partition 831 MB Healthy Hidden

DISKPART>

= = = =

The last bullet:

" remove letter=Z (Z is a selected volume letters, run the command to remove the ghost hard drive letter instead of partition.)"

That action should remove the phantom USB drive.

You can find other similar links - for example:

https://www.diskpart.com/articles/cannot-delete-volume-on-usb-7201.html

In any case check everything out very carefully before committing to that last remove command.

And be absolutely sure that all other drives and data are fully backed up and proved recoverable and readable.

Which should be SOP's for everyone.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Solution
Ralston18 said:
Disk Management and Get-Disk are in agreement.

If there are no other installed drives then that is what would be expected.

However, if the ghost/phantom USD drive is still present then you can try "diskpart".

Link

https://www.ubackup.com/windows-10/ghost-hard-drive-windows-10-1122.html

Scroll down the link to

How to remove Ghost or Phantom Hard Drive in Windows 10

Follow the procedure down doing all but the "remove letter" bullet in Step 2.

The results will appear much as is shown below (from my PC with computer name redacted):

= = = =

PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> diskpart

Microsoft DiskPart version 10.0.19041.964

Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation.
On computer: XXXX

DISKPART> list volume

Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info
---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- --------- --------
Volume 0 E DVD-ROM 0 B No Media
Volume 1 D Dell Data NTFS Partition 465 GB Healthy
Volume 2 C OS NTFS Partition 224 GB Healthy Boot
Volume 3 ESP FAT32 Partition 650 MB Healthy System
Volume 4 WINRETOOLS NTFS Partition 990 MB Healthy Hidden
Volume 5 Image NTFS Partition 11 GB Healthy Hidden
Volume 6 DELLSUPPORT NTFS Partition 1093 MB Healthy Hidden
Volume 7 F XXXX_Backup NTFS Partition 110 GB Healthy
Volume 8 NTFS Partition 831 MB Healthy Hidden

DISKPART>

= = = =

The last bullet:

" remove letter=Z (Z is a selected volume letters, run the command to remove the ghost hard drive letter instead of partition.)"

That action should remove the phantom USB drive.

You can find other similar links - for example:

https://www.diskpart.com/articles/cannot-delete-volume-on-usb-7201.html

In any case check everything out very carefully before committing to that last remove command.

And be absolutely sure that all other drives and data are fully backed up and proved recoverable and readable.

Which should be SOP's for everyone.
Click to expand...
One last thing before I try it.
 
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