SOLVED Local Disk Z

[Jack Slone]

Local disk Z showed up on my computer. What is it, do I need I, and how do I get rid of it?

 

[Saltgrass]

We know what it normally is, so do not try to get rid of it..

If you want to confirm, attach a picture of your disk management picture.

 

[Regedit32]

Hi Jack,

Welcome to the Forum.

Local Disk Z can appear for a couple of reasons:

• You are running a Hewlett Packard computer with their HP Support Software and have an EFI partition set up in your BIOS, which Hewlett Packard uses as a Virtual partition for recovery purposes. Technically if should not display in your File Explorer, but I notice on HP Forums this has been an ongoing issue from Windows 7, 8x, and now Windows 10 - although oddly, not for everyone.
• Windows Update Service can also make a Virtual partition for temporary unpacking of files needed to recover from (for example if the update fails to install properly). Again, this ought not appear in your File Explorer and to be honest I'm not sure whether their is some kind of bug going on here, or whether its subject to personal settings, given again, not everyone experiences this. On a brighter note, if its the Windows Update Service that created this virtual drive, that will in time disappear on its own, just as the temporary folders created when installing a Windows 10 OS disappear (usually after 30 days).

When I was reading the HP forums I saw some good advice, but unfortunately saw far more very poor advice. Please remember, that these forums are not run by Hewlett Packard programmers, but rather volunteers, some who are excellent, and others who ought to stick to playing games on their computer

In general if you Googled this you would likely come across equally as poor advice on the subject, much of which outdates Windows 10, and thus is not going to work anyway.

My advice would be do not attempt to delete this partition / virtual drive! This information on it is needed!

Having said that, if it bothers you to see this mystery Local Disk, then you can hide it from view, whilst retaining the data on it, which is perfectly safe to do.

This involves a Registry modification, but rather than walk you through the Registry Editor window, I'll simply give you a simpler command to execute in an elevated command prompt.

How to Hide Local Disk Z from view, using Registry Tweak via Command Prompt (Admin)

• Press your Windows key + S key together to give focus to the Search / Cortana field
• In the Search / Cortana field type comm
• In the search results right-click on Command Prompt and select Run as administrator
• When prompted by the User Account Control click Yes
• Now in the Administrator: Command Prompt console, type or copy & paste the following:

REG ADD "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer" /v NoDrives /t REG_DWORD /d 33554432

Press Enter key

Sample image

Type exit and press Enter key​

• Next, right-click on Taskbar and select Task Manager
• Under the Processes tab scroll to bottom and right-click on Windows Explorer and select Restart

Sample image

Done!​

Note: To reverse this modification repeat the steps above, but in the command console type or copy & paste the following instead:

REG DELETE "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer" /v NoDrives /f

Press Enter key

Sample image

Then restart Windows Explorer


Or if you want to keep the NoDrives value you can alternatively type or copy & paste the following instead:

REG ADD "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer" /v NoDrives /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f

Press Enter key

Sample image

Then restart Windows Explorer


Resources: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc938267.aspx

Regards,

Regedit32

Addendum: I will post an article on this topic to explain in more depth the detail later plus will include some other information on how to prevent access to a drive/partition for Security purposes. If interested keep an eye out for this during the course of the week.

 

[Jack Slone]

We know what it normally is, so do not try to get rid of it..

If you want to confirm, attach a picture of your disk management picture.

Thank you very much. I had no idea what this was, or what to do about it.

 

[Jack Slone]

Thank you very much, I had no idea what this was , or what to do about it.

 

[Saltgrass]

Thank you very much, I had no idea what this was , or what to do about it.

If you don't know what disk management is then type diskmgmt.msc in a run box or right click the start button and select. Make sure and capture the graphical presentation of the partitions.

Use the snipping tool to capture a picture and attach using the "upload s file" option