Weird 'Ghost' Drive - Completely Stumped!

Boozad

Prolific Poster
Right, has anybody ever seen this before? I have no idea when it appeared as I don't expand my Disk Drives in Device Manager very often, but I'm pretty sure it's something I've done.

Device manager (1).JPG

The only USB drive I have installed on my PC is my Hitachi Touro Mobile USB 3.0 external HDD, and that's accounted for in Device Manager, Explorer and Disk Management. I've tried uninstalling the drive but Windows just reinstalls it on reboot. As you can see in Disk Management it's assigned drive letter L: but that's nowhere to be seen in Explorer or Device Manager. This one's really got me stumped.

Explorer (2).JPG

Disk Management (3).JPG

Reinstall (4).JPG
 
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Rakk

The Awesome
Moderator
We can't see those pictures Boozad :(

When I went and found the link the images are referring to it wouldn't let me see them due to not being logged in at the site (note as a moderator I can see where they link to if the image isn't just referenced locally)
 

ubuysa

The BSOD Doctor
I can see the images now Boozad. Never seen that before though!

Do you have any other USB devices plugged in? I'm wondering whether Windows is confused about some other USB device you have and it's assuming it's a hard drive? Try unplugging all USB-attached devices and reboot, see whether it's still there. If it is still there, and you still can't delete it, and you have no other USB devices plugged in, then right click on the ghost drive and select Properties. Click the Details tab and in the menu bar there select Hardware IDs. That many give you a clue to what sort of device it is or you can Google the info you find there to see whether that can identify what it is?
 

Bishybarnybee

Bronze Level Poster
This may be a complete red herring but I used to get similar problems on Win XP (which were often compounded by the disc write cacheing).

Maybe Microsoft has not fully eradicated this with Win 7/8?

Win XP issues summarised in this link
 

Boozad

Prolific Poster
right click on the ghost drive and select Properties. Click the Details tab and in the menu bar there select Hardware IDs.

The trouble is I can only find the drive in Disk Drives and Disk Management and neither of those give me that option, the only hardware ID I can find is through Disk Drives (Device Manager) and it just says Disk drive.

I think I may know what caused it but can't replicate the problem or solve it. I thought I had a problem with my front USB 3.0 ports no giving me 3.0 speeds, I bought two Data Travelers and they only transferred at 10MB/s. I reinstalled the latest drivers more than once (for the XHCI controller) but couldn't get the speed up. Then I tried to apply ASUS USB 3.0 Boost to them to see what would happen but even that didn't work. I then tried my Touro Mobile in one (it worked in the back ports at over 100MB/s) but I got the message that the drive needed formatting, and I think that is where this drive appeared, maybe Windows tried to install it as a drive and assigned it a letter.

I didn't format it as it's my backup drive, I just removed it and plugged it back in at the back. After that my Data Travelers don't open Autoplay and don't show up in Explorer when I insert them in either of the front ports, but I can 'Safely Remove' them (they show up as ASUS BOT device) which is strange. I plugged my Touro Mobile in one of the front ports again yesterday and it worked perfectly with transfer rates of over 100 MB/s, so it looks like my front speeds are really fine and it was the Data Travelers that were slow which was the initial problem.
I'm pretty sure this ghost drive was created when I tried to plug my Touro Mobile in the front the first time, it's the only thing I can think of. It's not a major issue (unless I need drive letter L: in future) but I don't like being beaten by weird little glitches!
 

ubuysa

The BSOD Doctor
That sure sounds like a reasonable explanation. Windows can behave really weird at times. :)

You can remove the drive letter in Disk Management, right click on the ghost drive and select Change Drive Letter and Paths. In the window that pops up click Remove to remove the drive letter assigned. The drive will disappear from Windows now and L: will be available as a future drive letter too.
 

Boozad

Prolific Poster
You can remove the drive letter in Disk Management, right click on the ghost drive and select Change Drive Letter and Paths. In the window that pops up click Remove to remove the drive letter assigned. The drive will disappear from Windows now and L: will be available as a future drive letter too.

Well you'd have thought that would have worked wouldn't you? I unassigned the drive letter then uninstalled the drive again, but lo and behold Windows reinstalled the driver for it upon reboot. Having now looked in Printers and Devices it's showing up in there with a Warning.png by it. Looking at the properties it shows that the drive cannot start (obviously because it isn't actually there).

Capture.JPG

Capture 2.JPG

Now what's really weird is that I received the rig on the 14th of June, so now I've no idea at all as to why it's there or what it is. I'm not sure if the date on this is correct as I'm pretty sure I've looked at Disk Management in the past with the drive not being in there, but the install date and first install date are exactly the same.

Capture 3.JPG

And what's even weirder is that now L: has been assigned to a Portable Device. This is getting weirder and now my brain is certifiably fried.

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Boozad

Prolific Poster
So I uninstalled the Portable Device and rebooted and now get this. I'll have to do some digging on that now but I'm getting to the point of being past caring!

Capture.JPG
 

ubuysa

The BSOD Doctor
Well you've officially got me beat. :surrender:

If it's not causing any issues I wouldn't worry, but obviously if you start getting any weird stuff happening then you'll need to do something about it. Beyond a reinstall I can't begin to image what else you can usefully do though.

I'd be interested if you do find a real cause for this (and a way of getting rid of it of course). :)
 

Boozad

Prolific Poster
Yeah it's got me beat too, and I suppose as long as I keep Device Manager collapsed I can live in ignorance. It's not causing me problems and going by the install date (the day before I actually received the rig!) it's been there for quite a while and hasn't caused any issues. I've done a hell of a lot of searching for this over the last couple of weeks and can't find the same problem anywhere so I think I'll just let it go, and while I'm tempted to perform a clean install (because I like everything neat and tidy and right) I just don't think it's worth the hassle as the rig is running fine.

What caused it is beyond me and I doubt I'll ever know, but if I do ever crack it I'll be certain to let you know!
 
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