Windows 7 Phantom local drive

donaldadkins · Nov 26, 2009

Hi,

I've been fighting this one for some time and still haven't figured out what caused it or how to fix it. I have a P205 s-6287 Tosiba laptop, 4gb ram, windows 7 home premium 64-bit OS.

Under the Computer icon I have a phantom local drive (Q) showing up. If I click on it "it is not accessible", "access denied". I can't find it in Device Manager or Computer Management. I did find it in registry and deleted the key, but after a reboot it returns.

The only thing I can think of that I did different was I tried to access my card reader through a usb port with an adapter, but that didn't work. I then accessed the built in reader and it worked fine. Maybe I removed it without clicking on the safe to remove icon -- can't remember.

Any ideas?

Thanks,
Don

donaldadkins · Dec 4, 2009

Phantom Drive Possibly Resolved

I found this comment on another site:

"Found the answer. The Culprit is the Office 2010 Beta (specifically, Softgrid):

Link Removed due to 404 Error

What's weird is that I just installed it on a second computer as well, and I don't see the drive there. Guess that's why it's still in Beta!"

When I uninstalled this app, my Q drive was still there but I hadn't cleaned up registry before.

Thanks everyone,
Don

reghakr · Nov 26, 2009

Turn it off and pull the USB cable out,. Try another port,. then turn the drive back on.

donaldadkins · Nov 27, 2009

Phantom Drive

reghakr said:
Turn it off and pull the USB cable out,. Try another port,. then turn the drive back on.

Thanks, I tried your suggestion, no luck. It really isn't hurting anything, but I sure would like to fix it.

Thanks again for your suggestion.

Don

Saltgrass · Nov 27, 2009

Win 7 is set by default to hide empty drives in the folders view options, maybe that is why you cannot see it.

In Device Manger, try showing hidden devices in the View menu.

Do you have any programs that might be adding virtual drives? What key in the registry did you remove to get rid of it? Is there anything in msconfig.exe startup tab to correspond to that key?

donaldadkins · Nov 27, 2009

Answers

Saltgrass said:
Win 7 is set by default to hide empty drives in the folders view options, maybe that is why you cannot see it.

In Device Manger, try showing hidden devices in the View menu.

Do you have any programs that might be adding virtual drives? What key in the registry did you remove to get rid of it? Is there anything in msconfig.exe startup tab to correspond to that key?

Here are the answers:
Registry: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, SYSTEM, Mounted Devices, DOSDevices\Q

Nothing that I can see in the Startup tab that could be causing the problem.
Intel(R) Common User Interface X 3, MSE and Realtek HD Audio Manager

I use Paragon to take mirror images for backups.

Hope this helps...
Don

Saltgrass · Nov 27, 2009

It is probably the Paragon software. Different utilities have different ways of watching your system.

donaldadkins · Nov 27, 2009

Makes sense

Saltgrass said:
It is probably the Paragon software. Different utilities have different ways of watching your system.

I'll uninstall znd reinstall Paragon and let you know what happens.

Thanks,
Don

reghakr · Nov 28, 2009

Saltgrass said:
It is probably the Paragon software. Different utilities have different ways of watching your system.

Exactly,. thats the problem

Saltgrass · Nov 28, 2009

I don't think he really has a problem. I know Acronis installs some pretty heavy devices in the Device Manager, so I bet Paragon is just doing its normal thing.

reghakr · Nov 28, 2009

II.m suree you hears this before that I like GParted.

If you say for instance,. you have a 500A GB drive,. how much can you shrinkl that main paririon down to in Windows?

stxh · Dec 1, 2009

donaldadkins said:
local drive (Q) showing up. If I click on it "it is not accessible", "access denied".

If you installed Microsoft office starter 2010, maybe it is the real reason.

donaldadkins · Dec 1, 2009

stxh said:
If you installed Microsoft office starter 2010, maybe it is the real reason.

Thanks for your reply. I did install the beta version of Microsoft office home and business. You think that might be the problem...

I'll uninstall and see if it goes away. I thought it might be the Paragon software so I uninstalled it, but that didn't fix it.

Thanks,
Don

donaldadkins · Dec 2, 2009

Still no luck

donaldadkins said:
I'll uninstall znd reinstall Paragon and let you know what happens.

Thanks,
Don

I uninstalled paragon and microsoft office home and business. The phantom drive still lives. Just can't kill that thing, it's got nine lives....

Thanks for your help, I'll eventually figure it out just thought someone might have had the same problem.

Don

stxh · Dec 3, 2009

donaldadkins said:
I uninstalled paragon and microsoft office home and business. The phantom drive still lives. Just can't kill that thing, it's got nine lives....

Thanks for your help, I'll eventually figure it out just thought someone might have had the same problem.

Don

Not microsoft office home but office starter 2010. I have the local driver Q too, and after I start the office starter, I can open files in driver Q by office starter. And the program run from Q too (You can check it from taskmgr)

donaldadkins · Dec 3, 2009

stxh said:
Not microsoft office home but office starter 2010. I have the local driver Q too, and after I start the office starter, I can open files in driver Q by office starter. And the program run from Q too (You can check it from taskmgr)

Thanks, I knew you meant the starter version but I don't have that app, so I thought there might have been a chance that the beta version of office might be doing the same thing.

Thanks for your input,
Don

donaldadkins · Dec 4, 2009

Phantom Drive Possibly Resolved

I found this comment on another site:

"Found the answer. The Culprit is the Office 2010 Beta (specifically, Softgrid):

Link Removed due to 404 Error

What's weird is that I just installed it on a second computer as well, and I don't see the drive there. Guess that's why it's still in Beta!"

When I uninstalled this app, my Q drive was still there but I hadn't cleaned up registry before.

Thanks everyone,
Don

reghakr · Dec 4, 2009

Hello Don, glad you got it figured out.

BTW, how much disk space does that behemoth Office 2010 Beta take up

donaldadkins · Dec 4, 2009

Specs for MS Office Home and Office 2010 Beta

reghakr said:
Hello Don, glad you got it figured out.

BTW, how much disk space does that behemoth Office 2010 Beta take up

Microsoft Office 2010 System Requirements & Compatibility
Link Removed - Invalid URL
Are there special system requirements for running Office 2010?

Preliminary system requirements for Office 2010 include the following:

Windows XP SP3, Windows Vista or Windows 7
You don't need to replace hardware that is capable of running Office 2007; it will support Office 2010.
Processor: 500 MHz or higher
Memory: 256 MB or higher
Hard Disk: 1.5 GB; a portion of the disk space will be freed after installation if the original download package is removed from the hard drive.

Hope this helps, I love the app. They have really upgraded.

Don

reghakr · Dec 4, 2009

As normal, their specifications are bullshit.

256 MB of RAM................Come on, get real

knookie · Jul 7, 2010

Here's a bit more on the phantom Q drive here...

Office 2010 Beta - Phantom Q drive

Link Removed - Invalid URL
Link Removed - Invalid URL

Windows 7 Phantom local drive

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