Phantom O/S ?

Joined
Apr 6, 2015
Messages
322
Reaction score
10
Previously when THIS PC became 'non-responding', I could find that an HDD was not being recognised; typically reseating the connections to it would fix that. I am now finding that it is C:\ which is lacking from THIS PC - obviously I can not reseat those leads without 'crashing' the PC. Seems bizarre that an invisible drive still operates the PC functions. The absence of C:\ criples Save As - amongst other things no doubt. Would appreciate enlightenment.
 
Joined
Apr 22, 2017
Messages
5,477
Reaction score
684
Hi,

can you open Computer Management > Disk Management and paste it please. Might be a corrupted disk drive?. :)

1609838713830.png
 
Joined
Apr 6, 2015
Messages
322
Reaction score
10
It shows in Disk Management in a totally normal way, but not in the LEFT pane of a non-responding THIS PC. In an old browser, there was the option to attach pics, but I could not send them because "Security error occurred." So I opened the thread in the latest Chrome browser - it only allows hyperlinks.
 
Joined
Apr 6, 2015
Messages
322
Reaction score
10
A second attempt in Firefox v50 did NOT give the security warning - so here are the pics ...
 

Attachments

  • Disk Management.JPG
    Disk Management.JPG
    30.1 KB · Views: 105
  • THIS PC.JPG
    THIS PC.JPG
    33.3 KB · Views: 94
Joined
Apr 22, 2017
Messages
5,477
Reaction score
684
Hi Sebastian,

did you set the drive letters or was it done automatically by the system?. I ask as it is unusual to have an "A" drive these days!, I assume that "Backup" is an attached HDD/SSD and not an "A" drive?. :)
 
Joined
Apr 6, 2015
Messages
322
Reaction score
10
I set all the letters except C:\; A:\ is a USB and I also have a B:\ USB that I use once a week.
 
Joined
Apr 22, 2017
Messages
5,477
Reaction score
684
I set all the letters except C:\; A:\ is a USB and I also have a B:\ USB that I use once a week.
I think you should rename A: to E. and B: to F. as I assume that is why is it slow to load????. This is only a theory though, just to be clear!. ;)
 
Joined
Apr 6, 2015
Messages
322
Reaction score
10
I have had A:\ and B:\ like that for a very long time - years. The disappearance of C:\ is quite new, so is not likely to be caused by an old setting. I have not said that loading is slow. The C:\ works well, but often now, does not show in THIS PC, even though it shows in Disk Management.
 
Joined
Apr 22, 2017
Messages
5,477
Reaction score
684
Hi Sebastion,

when I mentioned "rename" I actually meant "reassign" the drive letters as I still think that is your problem as there may be old code running on Win 10 telling the system to boot from drive A or B????. :)
 
Joined
Apr 22, 2017
Messages
5,477
Reaction score
684
But there is NO problem booting;
I am officially lost now Lol!. I would still try re-assigning the drive letters just as a matter of course!. I really don't know what else to suggest?. :)
 
Last edited:
Joined
Apr 22, 2017
Messages
5,477
Reaction score
684
Found something of interest about reassigning drive letters. :)

So when I built a new computer recently with two internal drives, one for the OS and one for data, I thought, hey!, I’ll make my data drive “A”. I felt all rebellious until I discovered that Windows will not index drives lettered A or B. :(

Took me quite a while to figure out what the problem was, but I found some other people who suffered the same issue when they used A or B for a [primary] drive. As soon as I assigned that drive a different letter, windows indexed the drive. So much for being rebellious.


Source. What Are the Windows A: and B: Drives Used For? (howtogeek.com)
 
Joined
Apr 6, 2015
Messages
322
Reaction score
10
I don't understand what it means for 'windows to index a drive'; I doubt whether I can be said to have used A and/or B as a PRIMARY drive (I don't know that that means either). I my case A, is a permanently attached USB, to which I second-save MOST of the data that I change; and B is a clone of A. I connect and update B every week.
 
Joined
Apr 6, 2015
Messages
322
Reaction score
10
For what it is worth, I will report that for about two weeks I had a much better response from a clone-converted-to system-disk - but the FREQUENT absence of C:\ from THIS PC persisted.
I had other serious problems which I did not address in this thread. HDSentinel showed me that the original drive (SSD) was perfect, but the clone-I-was-using-as-system, had at least one bad sector, so I reverted to the original SSD as my system (carrying a clone of the clone), and the other serious problems (loss of mouse cursor, and frequent crashing) have NOT returned.
In the meantime I have become aware of the way I can possibly diagnose the cause of problems by looking at Event Viewer. So far I can see there are many reports of errors. and warnings and failures etc etc.
Armed with information from Event Viewer, I may be able to make some headway when issues re-occur.
 

Ask a Question

Want to reply to this thread or ask your own question?

You'll need to choose a username for the site, which only take a couple of moments. After that, you can post your question and our members will help you out.

Ask a Question

Similar Threads

Phantom icon 1

Top