This is one of the rarest issue you might have faced using Windows Operating System.
If you have bought a new/used laptop and did some disk partitions you may come through this kind of unknown or alien local disk drive appearing in the drives list.
The unknown drive mostly will be with alphabet name assigned as Z:
Its not a matter to get panic!
This may be only due to garbage memory or temporary memory assigned as a local drive and has no access to open it as it is being used some where by the operating system or any other application.
You may not be able to see the Z: drive in the System Protection tab. But it still appears in the drive list as a Local drive.
If you see in the above image, you can observe that there is an unknown local disk present in the local drive list. This is due to the partitioning of the drives. When you purchase a new laptop or do a system recovery there may be only one Partition available which is only a C: Drive. After that you create other drives by disk partition using windows disk partitioning or some other software.
How to remove the unknown Local disk Z: drive without any data loss?
NOTE: You should not delete the Z: drive forcefully as it may delete important system files or any temporary files currently being used by your system and may result in any unwanted behavior of the application software.
This method is tested working in Windows 10.
Here are some tested and very simple procedure to remove the Ghost drive or unwanted Z: without deleting it.
- Copy or take backup of D: drive files.
- Download and install EaseUs partition tool
- Delete the D: drive Partition using EaseUs tool
- Now apply the changes and create the D: drive again and apply all the changes.
- Reboot the system, you are done!
We have tried the same steps and the drive is no longer appearing in the list even though we have not deleted it.
When we deleted and recreated the D: drive the disk drive allocation will be corrected and the Z: drive disappears, but the temporary files will be present hidden in the primary disk or disk allocated for EFI partition.
We have now uploaded the latest video tutorial with permanent fix for the above unknown Z: issue.
Update: We have now come up with a Permanent Fix for Z: with video tutorial
https://www.cgstudy.in/tech/video-how-to-remove-unknown-disc-z-drive-appearing-in-windows-10-8-1/
***FIX***Another way to do it instead of changing drives and uninstalling them etc, is to open command prompt and go through disk part. click start (windows 10) and type ‘cmd’ right click it and select ‘run as administrator’.
When the program opens type ‘diskpart’ without quotations and then type ‘list volume’ find the volume that has the ‘z’ title. then type ‘select volume 4’ (<— example) then it should say that the volume is selected… then type 'delete volume 4' or 'erase volume 4' and then restart your computer. *NOTE: this can be dangerous to your computer so make sure that you select the correct volume and not the example volume 4 i have used. Furthermore i am not to be held accountable for any damage caused by negligence by improperly selected volumes or drives. Do take care!
When we tested the Drive Z: was containing the EFI partition/BIOS partition. So it may be harmful in deleting the system files. Thanks for the fix you suggested. This may be helpful in case it is a temporary folder
can i see your video? i have same matter like this, but in my windows 8.1.
I dunno how to fix them completely, please help me to solve in win 8.1.
Thanks.
Sorry We have not made a video of this yet.
Which Laptop you are using is it a HP one, then the same above may work for you. Restarting the system is mandatory after creation/deletion of the drive.
Hi Agi,
We considered your request. Please try our permanent fix with video tutorial for the unknown z drive in windows 10
https://www.cgstudy.in/software/video-how-to-remove-unknown-disc-z-drive-appearing-in-windows-10-8-1/
the D drive u have is assigned to my RECOVERY drive…im using HP 15 Notebook and its shipped with the RECOVERY drive assigned in D: it only got 2 partition as C: and D: and i did an extra partition as E: . it would be great help of u if u let me know if im safe to proceed with your methods!!!
Don’t do any thing with the 😀 drive if in case it is a recovey partition
If you delete the D drive which you said above is a RECOVERY partition, you will loose the backup of your OS. So dont try the above method. If you are using the HP Support assistant just uninstall it and restart the system. The Z: appears due to the BIOS update a new partition gets created. You might have done the BIOS update that may be the reason. The HP application may be detecting the Z partition as a visible drive instead of a hidden partition.
the same happened with me but when i restarted my pc the local disk z just disappeared and had never showed up again so far!
Thanks Mohit for the comment. That may not be a permanent fix, it may reappear once you open HP Support Assistant and go to storage. We have not received it again after HP gave a update to their Support software.
Hi Mohit,
Please try our permanent fix with video tutorial for the unknown z drive in windows 10
https://www.cgstudy.in/software/video-how-to-remove-unknown-disc-z-drive-appearing-in-windows-10-8-1/
Actually i opened hp support assistant again and again in and went to storage inorder to chech if what you guys claim is right but i cant see it anymore if after running hp support assistant ! Maybe the issue got fixed or maybe not but iam damn sure that it had something to do with hp support assistant because it happened after i install hp support assistant and ran it ! Well only the time say whether the issue is fixed or not if it appears again i think i should worry then!
Kk guys just now i noticed something!
When i performed a storage diagnostics in hp support assistant it appeared again !
The issue is due to hp support assistant. You can also try updating the latest bios to resolve it.
https://www.cgstudy.in/software/video-how-to-remove-unknown-disc-z-drive-appearing-in-windows-10-8-1/
Please try our permanent fix with video tutorial for the unknown z drive in windows 10
https://www.cgstudy.in/software/video-how-to-remove-unknown-disc-z-drive-appearing-in-windows-10-8-1/
This just happened to me, however, I’ve had my computer for 3 years now, which is what bothers me. I’m using windows 10.
Hi Jenna,
Try installing the latest bios for windows 10 and restart one more time after successful installation of the latest bios for your device.
HP New bios update
If the problem still persists uninstall HP support software and reinstall.
Also try our new fix
https://www.cgstudy.in/software/video-how-to-remove-unknown-disc-z-drive-appearing-in-windows-10-8-1/
Please try our permanent fix with video tutorial for the unknown z drive in windows 10
https://www.cgstudy.in/software/video-how-to-remove-unknown-disc-z-drive-appearing-in-windows-10-8-1/
Just run command prompt “cmd” in elevated mode and then execute the following command:
mountvol z: /d
where z is the drive that you want to be unmounted.
wow my friend its worked like magic , Thanks alot 🙂
Thanks you master..
Pls update BIOS in your system.After upadating BIOS in your system,you will get the result that mean automatically Z drive will remove from your system.This is only due to BIOS as per my knowledge concern.Not to go through the other complicated methods
i used the permanent method formy hp 15 ab522tx and it worked superbly no issues found now. thanks guys
what should i do if my D Drive is assigned to recovery?
I tired the diskpart script and was not successful. I then tried mountvol g: /d where g: (drive to remove) and /d (remove the drive. Worked quite well!! Thanks all!
Note: I watched the video and followed the regedit and nothing happened.
My Recovery D drive appeared has a folder how can I change it to normal ?