Boot drive not listed in device manager or in management console
Drive c: (my boot drive) is not listed either in device manager or in the storage management console of Windows 7 home Premium. There are 4 unique hard drives in my system. Drives D: E: and F: are listed correctly. There is no entry anywhere in either device manager or the management console for the C: drive yet the system boots OK and the drive and its contents are properly shown in Windows explorer. Using the rescan command in device manager has no effect. The major problem is that programs that depend on these listings (such as Norton Ghost) cannot find the C: drive and do not work. I'm not quite sure when/how this problem first appeared but I know that it is relatively new (within the last month or two).
June 7th, 2010 4:34pm

Hi, Do you have an administrator privilege? Try administrator or a new account to check the result. Could you please capture a screenshot of the Disk management? Do you have any unallocated space on your disk? I would suggest run a disk checking tool. This application scans your hard drives for errors such as lost sectors. Type “CHKDSK /F” in the Start search bar, right click on the CHKDSK /F item and choose “Run as administrator”, If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation. Regards,Magon Liu - MSFT
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June 10th, 2010 11:23am

I have administrator privilege. There is no unallocated space on the disk. I have captured screenshots of both Windows 7 explorer "computer" and the disk management console but I cannot figure out how to attach them to this post. Copy and paste don't seem to work. How can I show them to you?
June 10th, 2010 11:42pm

Here are the screenshots I mentioned: Disk Management console: Computer folder in Windows 7 explorer: Notice that the C: drive and its physical disk are not shown anywhere in diskmanagement yet it IS shown in Windows 7 explorer. I have never seen anything like this. I'd appreciate any help I can get.
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June 11th, 2010 5:00pm

Hello Normster1510, Open an elevated cmd prompt: Then run the following commands: Diskpart Select disk 0 Select partition 1 detail partition What is the output when doing that? Something like this Partition 1 Type : 07 Hidden: No Active: Yes Offset in Bytes: 1048576 Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info ---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- --------- -------- * Volume 1 C NTFS Partition 97 GB Healthy System Thanks, Darrell Gorter This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights. Volume Activation documentation on TechNet http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/dd197314.aspx http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd996588.aspx VAMT - Volume Activation Management Tool - Download link http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=ec7156d2-2864-49ee-bfcb-777b898ad582&displaylang=en
June 12th, 2010 3:55am

When I run diskpart and then "select disk 0" I get The disk you specified is invalid. There is no disk selected. While still in diskpart I tried "List disk". It listed only disks 1, 2 and 3. There is no listing for disk 0. When I check the BIOS (which autodetects the hard drives). It lists all 4 disks as expected. The missing C: drive is shown on SATA Port 0 which is correct. List disk shows the 500GB E: drive as "Disk 1" When I detail Partition 1 on this drive (Disk 1), I get Partition 1 Type: 07 Hidden: No Active: Yes Offset in bytes: 32256 etc. with the drive letter E: as expected. I don't know why this drive is listed as Active. It has no system on it - its a data disk. I'm lost.
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June 12th, 2010 5:15am

Nope. It's a good old fashioned wired-to-the-port-on-the-motherboard floppy. My C: drive is the active drive. There is no system on E: . I don't know why Windows thinks its active.
June 12th, 2010 5:23am

Here are the the contents of Boot Manager and both Boot Loaders. Apparently the Boot Manager is indeed located on the E: drive. As an experiment I tried disconecting the SATA cables in various combinations to see what happened. The system would not boot with the E: drive disconnected even with both C: and D: (which both contain bootable OS's ) connected. The next question (the real big one) is: DO YOU SEE ANYTHING HERE THAT WOULD MAKE MY C: DRIVE INVISIBLE? iF SO, WHAT IS IT AND HOW DO I FIX IT? Windows Boot Manager -------------------- identifier {bootmgr} device partition=E: description Windows Boot Manager locale en-US inherit {globalsettings} default {current} resumeobject {8cd8efa8-cccf-11de-a500-a5b2a276ce44} displayorder {8cd8efac-cccf-11de-a500-a5b2a276ce44} {current} toolsdisplayorder {memdiag} timeout 10 Windows Boot Loader ------------------- identifier {8cd8efac-cccf-11de-a500-a5b2a276ce44} device partition=D: path \Windows\System32\winload.exe description Windows Vista Ultimate osdevice partition=D: systemroot \WINDOWS resumeobject {9f3a2757-ccbc-11de-9e23-806e6f6e6963} Windows Boot Loader ------------------- identifier {current} device partition=C: path \Windows\system32\winload.exe description Windows 7 Home Premium locale en-US inherit {bootloadersettings} recoverysequence {8cd8efaa-cccf-11de-a500-a5b2a276ce44} recoveryenabled Yes osdevice partition=C: systemroot \Windows resumeobject {8cd8efa8-cccf-11de-a500-a5b2a276ce44} nx OptIn
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June 12th, 2010 5:07pm

The problem, as you can see from the screenshots, is that my C: drive is not listed at all! It's neither active nor inactive. It just isn't!
June 12th, 2010 9:36pm

Very interesting. When I boot the Vista Partition, and go to disk management uder Vista, all four drives are shown properly both in Disk Manager and in Device Manager. I should have tried Dsikpart also but I didn't (I haven't used Vista in a long time and I got tied up with endless updates and with Vista deciding it had to be reactivated - probably because I added a some new hardware since I last used it 6 or 7 months ago). I have screenshots of the Vista listings but I can't seem to get onto Skydrive at the moment to upload them. I'll try that again a little later. It looks, however, like the problem is a Windows 7 problem not an overall system problem (whatever that means) but I'm not sure where in Windows 7 to begin looking.
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June 13th, 2010 6:23pm

Things you might want to consider. EIDE disks take priority over SATA disks in disk manager when numbering them. If you have mixed disks, EIDE and SATA there can be issues with some machines. This is due to a BIOS fault. Look at the BIOS and see if all of the disks are enumerated. Check the boot options in the BIOS as well and see what its has to say. Vote if answered or helpful, I am running for Office (joke)! IT/Developer, Windows/Linux/Mainframe Need a some parts finish the new server, see the site for remaining items needed
June 13th, 2010 6:39pm

I replaced my motherboard recently and all boot issues are history. Now I can use mixed disks galore and boot anything I have on hand. Before if I had an EIDE disk, I was forced to install Windows on it. It was impossible to install it as a slave. Now given the Windows 7 inability to see the disk suggests a BIOS issue. Windows asks the BIOS for disk enumeration. I would need motherboard make and model. Vote if answered or helpful, I am running for Office (joke)! IT/Developer, Windows/Linux/Mainframe Need a some parts finish the new server, see the site for remaining items needed
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June 13th, 2010 7:14pm

Vegan Fanatic- All 4 HDD's are SATA. Both CDRs are EIDE The BIOS lists all four disks correctly. Windows 7 Explorer lists all 4 disks correctly. Windows 7 disk Management AND Device manager AND DiskPart cannot see the c: drive. Vista Explorer AND Disk Management AND Device Manager AND DiskPart List all 4 Disks Correctly See above for more detail. Grits n Gravy - I went back and ran DiskPart under Vista. Here's a listing: Microsoft Windows [Version 6.0.6002] Copyright (c) 2006 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. D:\Users\Norm>diskpart Microsoft DiskPart version 6.0.6002 Copyright (C) 1999-2007 Microsoft Corporation. On computer: NORM-PC-D950 DISKPART> list disk Disk ### Status Size Free Dyn Gpt -------- ---------- ------- ------- --- --- Disk 0 Online 932 GB 0 B Disk 1 Online 466 GB 0 B Disk 2 Online 233 GB 0 B Disk 3 Online 932 GB 0 B DISKPART> list volume Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info ---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- --------- -------- Volume 0 M DVD-ROM 0 B No Media Volume 1 N DVD-ROM 0 B No Media Volume 2 C Win7 NTFS Partition 932 GB Healthy Volume 3 E Drive3 NTFS Partition 466 GB Healthy System Volume 4 D Vista NTFS Partition 233 GB Healthy Boot Volume 5 F Drive4 NTFS Partition 932 GB Healthy DISKPART> select disk 0 Disk 0 is now the selected disk. DISKPART> select partition 1 Partition 1 is now the selected partition. DISKPART> detail partition Partition 1 Type : 07 Hidden: No Active: No Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info ---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- --------- -------- * Volume 2 C Win7 NTFS Partition 932 GB Healthy DISKPART> So apparently Vista can see the disk OK all over, Windows 7 Disk Manaagement cannot, Windows 7 Explorer has no problem. Does this make any sense to you???
June 13th, 2010 7:59pm

OK, here how the BIOS sees everything, EIDE 0 master is used for a CD/DVD, EIDE 0 slave is used for another. SATA takes EIDE 1 master, SATA takes EIDE 1 slave. SATA takes extended disk controller 1, SATA takes extended disk controller 2. Now I have proved that the marking on a motherboard do not necessarily map the way they are marked. So if you boot disk is outside of the EIDE gamut, it will be problematic. So remove all disks except the boot disk and get rid of one DVD drive. If Windows boots up fine, check the disk manager and see if the C: is recognized. If not, power down and move the SATA to another header and repeat until it shows up. Then attach the other DVD drive and repeat. When done, attach remaining hard disks. Vote if answered or helpful, I am running for Office (joke)! IT/Developer, Windows/Linux/Mainframe Need a some parts finish the new server, see the site for remaining items needed
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June 13th, 2010 10:00pm

I agree its a nuisance, but there is no other way. Some boards are simply no good with vast numbers of disks. My new board seems fine, Asus M4A77D. I have 1 EIDE disk left that works. Rest are SATA as is the DVD. When I cloned by boot disk to upgrade it, I simply told the BIOS boot the new disk. Came up fine. The old disk came as E: and F: and after a hatchet job it was E after repartitioning the disk. In the Disk Manager my disks are as follows Disk 0 is the EIDE disk as expected Disk 1 is 500 GB SATA boot disk Disk 2 is the old 320 GB disk Disk 3 is the USB disk On the motherboard SATA 1 is the DVD burnder SATA 2 is the 320 GB disk SATA 3 is the 500 GB disk EIDE is on the EIDE connector Vote if answered or helpful, I am running for Office (joke)! IT/Developer, Windows/Linux/Mainframe Need a some parts finish the new server, see the site for remaining items needed
June 13th, 2010 11:22pm

Not bad, reminds my of the old days of wire wrap boards and designing new systems. Today that is all done with software. Vote if answered or helpful, I am running for Office (joke)! IT/Developer, Windows/Linux/Mainframe Need a some parts finish the new server, see the site for remaining items needed
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June 14th, 2010 12:10am

Hi, Try the /FixMbr option to check the result. See http://support.microsoft.com/kb/927392. Regards,Magon Liu - MSFT
June 14th, 2010 7:52am

Hello Normster1510, No this does not make any sense. Let check Device Manager to see if there are any hidden devices or device we think are not present In Device Manager enable "Show Hidden Devices" Does the drive appear? Let's also attempt the setting in this article 246250 HOW TO: View Non-Plug and Play Legacy Drivers in Windows 2000 http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;246250 It's a Windows 2000 article but the same settings should enable the viewing of those devices. Also what is under the sebkey in the registry: HKLM\system\mounted devices I would be looking for volume guids that are duplicated, corrupted,etc Thanks, Darrell Gorter This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights. Volume Activation documentation on TechNet http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/dd197314.aspx http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd996588.aspx VAMT - Volume Activation Management Tool - Download link http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=ec7156d2-2864-49ee-bfcb-777b898ad582&displaylang=en
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June 14th, 2010 8:05pm

Hello Grits and gravy, There are various methods that can be used to designate the drive letter of the OS drive. If you start setup from within an existing OS, we retain the existing drive lettering, so if something was installed and running on Drive letter C: and Setup for Windows Vista picked to install to drive letter D, Vista would retain that drive letter. There are also unattended settings that can be used to select the drive letter to be installed toThanks, Darrell Gorter This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights. Volume Activation documentation on TechNet http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/dd197314.aspx http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd996588.aspx VAMT - Volume Activation Management Tool - Download link http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=ec7156d2-2864-49ee-bfcb-777b898ad582&displaylang=en
June 14th, 2010 10:32pm

Hello Grits n Gravy, Thought I had replied to this already. Thanks for link, I thought that was present in the other article but it wasn't. That was what I was looking for, I must have copied the wrong article. There are serveral ways that you can boot Windows Vista as D:. 1) If setup.exe is run from inside an existing OS, we maintain the existing drive lettering of the volumes, so if you choose to install as to what was the D drive at that time, Vista would be installed to the D drive not the C drive. 2) There are unattended settings that can be used to select the drive letter as well as autoattended files that will be picked up when booting from the media. So you can select which drive letter that want to install to.Thanks, Darrell Gorter This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights. Volume Activation documentation on TechNet http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/dd197314.aspx http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd996588.aspx VAMT - Volume Activation Management Tool - Download link http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=ec7156d2-2864-49ee-bfcb-777b898ad582&displaylang=en
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June 15th, 2010 1:10am

Darrell - Device Manager, with "show hidden devices" enabled and the environment variable suggested by GnG still does not show the missing C: drive. The subkey HKLM\system\mounted devices is shown in the screenshot below: Drives C: D: E: and F: are the 4 HDD's in my system (C: is the drive not shown in Device Manager). Drives G: H: and I: are probably (quite likely) several external USB drives that I occasionally attach for various data storage. They are not attached now. Drives M: and N: are CDROM readers/writers. The binary stuff makes no sense to me. By the way everyone - I really appreciate all the time and effort that's gone into helping me so far. Even if I never get this resolved, I've learned an awful lot just following along. Magon - Is there any possiblity of wiping my system using the /fixmbr option. If so, what precautions should I take to recover later. Thanks again - Norm
June 15th, 2010 1:25am

Hello Normster1510, I would not run/fixmbr as I do not see how this will resolve this issue, this is writing the master boot record to the "system" drive which is E. Those are just volume GUIDS, I was looking for possible duplication of the GUIDS or a duplicate mapping of the drive letters overtop the C drive which I do not see. Probably will not show anything but can you run msinfo32? Does the drive show under components\Storage\drives? Are there any hardware conflicts that show up? Also look under Software environment\System Drivers Look under the start mode column for boot and make sure the state is running?Thanks, Darrell Gorter This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights. Volume Activation documentation on TechNet http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/dd197314.aspx http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd996588.aspx VAMT - Volume Activation Management Tool - Download link http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=ec7156d2-2864-49ee-bfcb-777b898ad582&displaylang=en
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June 15th, 2010 2:24am

I have seem a lot of problems with the forum of late here, seems to be a ongoing problem. Could be MS needs to carve up the server a bit more. Maybe one for Desktop Windows, one for Servers and so on, that way the load is less of a headache. Vote if answered or helpful, I am running for Office (joke)! IT/Developer, Windows/Linux/Mainframe Need a some parts finish the new server, see the site for remaining items needed
June 15th, 2010 3:41am

Darrell - I ran msinfo32 and everything looked OK under hardware conflicts/sharing and software environment\system drivers (all boot items are running). However, Under Components\storage\drives, all four HDDs show up. Here is the listing: Drive A: Description 3 1/2 Inch Floppy Drive Drive C: Description Local Fixed Disk Compressed No File System NTFS Size 931.51 GB (1,000,202,039,296 bytes) Free Space 532.81 GB (572,101,939,200 bytes) Volume Name Win7 Volume Serial Number CE883074 Drive D: Description Local Fixed Disk Compressed No File System NTFS Size 232.88 GB (250,056,704,000 bytes) Free Space 92.79 GB (99,633,586,176 bytes) Volume Name Vista Volume Serial Number 2830FFA6 Drive E: Description Local Fixed Disk Compressed No File System NTFS Size 465.76 GB (500,105,216,000 bytes) Free Space 126.21 GB (135,521,390,592 bytes) Volume Name Drive3 Volume Serial Number 24058E51 Drive F: Description Local Fixed Disk Compressed No File System NTFS Size 931.51 GB (1,000,202,039,296 bytes) Free Space 318.63 GB (342,126,854,144 bytes) Volume Name Drive4 Volume Serial Number 90B917D7 Drive M: Description CD-ROM Disc Drive N: Description CD-ROM Disc Under components\storage\disks, only 3 HDD's are listed. Here is the listing: Description Disk drive Manufacturer (Standard disk drives) Model ST31000340AS ATA Device Bytes/Sector 512 Media Loaded Yes Media Type Fixed hard disk Partitions 1 SCSI Bus 1 SCSI Logical Unit 0 SCSI Port 2 SCSI Target ID 1 Sectors/Track 63 Size 931.51 GB (1,000,202,273,280 bytes) Total Cylinders 121,601 Total Sectors 1,953,520,065 Total Tracks 31,008,255 Tracks/Cylinder 255 Partition Disk #3, Partition #0 Partition Size 931.51 GB (1,000,202,043,392 bytes) Partition Starting Offset 1,048,576 bytes Description Disk drive Manufacturer (Standard disk drives) Model WDC WD2500KS-00MJB0 ATA Device Bytes/Sector 512 Media Loaded Yes Media Type Fixed hard disk Partitions 1 SCSI Bus 1 SCSI Logical Unit 0 SCSI Port 2 SCSI Target ID 0 Sectors/Track 63 Size 232.88 GB (250,056,737,280 bytes) Total Cylinders 30,401 Total Sectors 488,392,065 Total Tracks 7,752,255 Tracks/Cylinder 255 Partition Disk #2, Partition #0 Partition Size 232.88 GB (250,056,705,024 bytes) Partition Starting Offset 32,256 bytes Description Disk drive Manufacturer (Standard disk drives) Model WDC WD5000KS-00MNB0 ATA Device Bytes/Sector 512 Media Loaded Yes Media Type Fixed hard disk Partitions 1 SCSI Bus 0 SCSI Logical Unit 0 SCSI Port 1 SCSI Target ID 1 Sectors/Track 63 Size 465.76 GB (500,105,249,280 bytes) Total Cylinders 60,801 Total Sectors 976,768,065 Total Tracks 15,504,255 Tracks/Cylinder 255 Partition Disk #1, Partition #0 Partition Size 465.76 GB (500,105,217,024 bytes) Partition Starting Offset 32,256 bytes Disk 0 (which is my missing C: Drive) is not listed under components\storage\disks. Does this information help?? - Norm
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June 15th, 2010 5:44am

Grits - Thanks very much for all of your help. I really appreciate your efforts. Keep an eye peeled on this thread. Who knows, this might eventually get solved and you can share in the knowledge learned. Thanks again, Norm
June 15th, 2010 5:49am

Normster1510, I had the EXACT problem you were having last night except I did not have a duel boot system. Unfortunately I threw in the towel backed up my data and reinstalled windows. As of now the drive is appearing fine. I've searched up and down to try and find what registry keys are examined, what API call is made and what it depends on etc... with no luck. HOWEVER, this morning when I was doing a post-mortem (cuz I worry that this will happen again) I ran across the following. http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Download I no longer have my broken pc to check it on my own; and with it working in vista it doesn't seem like it would be a partition table. I know on other forums they suggested using various RootKit Detectors McAfee has a Drive Inspector 1.1 but that doesn't run in windows 7 (you can force it to run in compatibility mode, but it blue screens). I will be watching this thread to see if anyone else comes to answer. I wish we could find someone that knows either diskpart inside and out, or "disk management". I ran sysinternals procmon to try and determine if it was hung on something but it spills out so much information it's really hard to know what is valid and what is not. Well this is my two cents. I hope you do find an answer!
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June 17th, 2010 5:06pm

Grits - Actually, the two "identical" drives are made by different manufacturers and have different part numbers. This makes them identifiable in utilities that show these numbers. Here is a summary of the way that Windows 7 and Vista view these drives: SATA Physical WIN 7 Vista Port Disk Size Disk # Vol # Drive Disk # Vol # Drive 0 WDC WD1001FALS 1000GB - - 0 2 C 1 WDC WD2500KS 250GB 2 3 D 2 4 D 2 WDC WD5000KS 500GB 1 2 E 1 3 E 3 ST 31000340AS 1000GB 3 4 F 3 5 F What concerns me about the article you referenced is the paragraph that states: "Additionally, when you install Windows 7, the installation creates a 100MB system partition alongside the Windows partition by default. The system partition is created to accommodate a Bitlocker requirement. Bitlocker requires that the boot files and Windows files are located on separate partitions. By default, the 100MB system partition is created on the disk that is detected as Disk 0. If you install Windows to a disk other than Disk 0, the 100MB system partition will still be created on Disk 0 during the installation." THERE IS NO EVIDENCE OF THIS 100MB SYSTEM PARTITION ANYWHERE ON MY SYSTEM. I don't know if this is indicative of the problem I am having or something else. I'm hoping that Darrell sees something in the data I listed above. Philip - Thanks for the post and the sympathy but your story doesn't make me feel a whole lot better. Wiping the drive and reinstalling Windows is not an option I am currently considering. I have far too many programs installed and set up the way I want them. At this point the only real problem is with Norton Ghost - everything else is working. I'd rather find a different backup solution. Although the problem is gnawing at me and I really need to know what is causing it, how to fix it and, most importantly: WHAT MADE IT HAPPEN AND HOW CAN I PREVENT IT FROM HAPPENING AGAIN. - Norm
June 18th, 2010 11:44pm

Hello Normster1510, Can you send me an email darrellg@online.microsoft.com? Remove the online prior to sendingThanks, Darrell Gorter This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights. Volume Activation documentation on TechNet http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/dd197314.aspx http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd996588.aspx VAMT - Volume Activation Management Tool - Download link http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=ec7156d2-2864-49ee-bfcb-777b898ad582&displaylang=en
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June 19th, 2010 2:12am

Hi, Here's a curveball for all of you.I have the same problem, BUT I run XP Professional and it is updated. C & D drives are identical HDDs and E is a USB drive. I have not changed any hardware on my computer (A Dell desktop). I use Casper 5.0 to clone copy my C drive onto D so that, in case of a crash which I have experienced a few times over many years, I can simply switch the cables and run D as C. I back up important data actively on a USB drive and to other computers via DropBox. Everything has been working well for about 12 months. Recently the only change I made was update Norton Internet Security from 2008 to 2010. i cannot say that this is the reason, but simply letting you know what has changed. I have also noticed that I have the so-called Google redirect virus - where links are re-directed to other links. I manage this by deleting all history, saved temp files, websites, cookies daily. As soon as I see the problem appear I clean out the temp files. I have also noticed recently that memory usage by an open svchost (one of many) is much higher than usual. I have done scans with Norton, with Windows Essentials, another Malware tracker and I cannot find anything. I have another Dell computer (call it Computer 2, a slightly older Dell model) also with identical C and D drives and a USB drive, just in case computer 1 decides to fail. Data from computer 1 backs up actively to this one (and another at home as well as on the internet). Computer 2 is working fine without any issues such as Google Redirect or missing C drive (in Device manager and Disk management). I run Norton Internet Security 2009 on this one. On this one I can still use Casper to clone C to D. So, what I'm saying is this is not a VISTA or WINDOWS 7 problem, if it is affecting XP it must be something else.
June 26th, 2010 12:48am

Sorry, to be clear. On computer 1 I cannot see drive C in Device Manager and Disk management, but I can see it in Explorer and My Computer. I cannot clone copy drive C to D any longer with Casper because of this. No hardware changes were made. This is a software driven problem, virus or ????? Computer 2 is still working fine with the same setup - meaning drive C appears where it should and can be clone copied by Casper.
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June 26th, 2010 12:57am

Look on my site, on the bottom of the home page is the link for Microsoft Security Essentials. Vote if answered or helpful, I am running for Office (joke)! IT/Developer, Windows/Linux/Mainframe Need a some parts finish the new server, see the site for remaining items needed
June 26th, 2010 2:22am

Hi, I have noticed today exactly the same problem as MartinRSA has. On my single HDD with single partition laptop I am running WindowsXP. PC works fine. But... HDD is not listed in Device Manager. Disk0 with partition C:\ is not visible in Disk Management console, but disk C:\ is visible in Disk Defragmenter console. When I run diskpart DISKPART> list disk There are no fixed disks to show. DISKPART> Also I had google redirect link behaviour today very morning and I was really surprised to read that MartinRSA did have similar. I deleted cookies and redirect link behaviour was resolved. But this issue with hard drive is in place and it is really odd. Any Ideas?
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July 3rd, 2010 12:16am

This is definitely a new virus / malware causing this. I ran into it today on an XP pro-sp3 all current updates system with the same problem as MartinRSA describes AVG Internet Security Business Edition and Spybot Search and Destroy with current updates as of 11:am est Oct. 12 2010 did not detect it, or any root kits. However Malwarebytes did detect 4 items with the current update at that time. I removed them rebooted and did a complete scan nothing else was found. However the ide disk0 active boot C drive did still not show up in device manager or computer management, yet the system still booted and the drive was still listed as Local disk C: in Explorer. Just adding to the knowledge pool.
October 13th, 2010 6:59am

I use Microsoft Security Essentials and I am on Microsoft Security mailing list. Its possible a new piece of malware has surfaced. Elected! Your votes and support have got me my 2010 MVP! Developer | Windows IT | Chess | Economics | Hardcore Games | Vegan | PC Reviews
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October 13th, 2010 3:30pm

Well I finally have the anwser. This is caused by TDSS root kit and here is a Link to the one rookit cleaner that worked for me. http://support.kaspersky.com/viruses/solutions?qid=208280684 I tried Gmer and AVG anti-rootkit and another I don't recall the name of at the moment none of these worked, Gmer 1.0.15.15530 actually locked up 4 out of 5 computers I tested it on. After Running TDSSKiller.exe and removing the rootkit, the Harddrive was again listed in device manager and Disk managment. I scanned the system again with several Scanners all came up clean.
November 10th, 2010 3:52am

Fantastic, that did it! I ran the rootkit cleaner and it found one malicious object. I rebooted and got a message that a driver for the missing drive was being installed. After a second reboot the missing C: drive was there in both device manager and in the management console. Problem solved. What a great call on your part. Thanks for posting the solution. I can't tell you how much time and effort went into trying to solve this issue both by me and by a super helpful support engineer at Microsoft named Jeff (I'm not sure if he would like his last name posted online so I will respect his privacy). Anyone who claims Microsoft doesn't support its customers hasn't been lucky enough to deal with someone like him. Actually, he was the one who spotted your post and emailed me the link. Thanks again for finding and posting the solution. Let's hope that someone eventually finds and punishes the idiots who write these rootkits. - Norm W
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November 11th, 2010 7:43pm

Sony was the developer of the first rootkit for Windows when they attempted to stop people from using MP3 Elected! Your votes and support have got me my 2010 MVP! Developer | Windows IT | Chess | Economics | Hardcore Games | Vegan Advocate | PC Reviews
November 11th, 2010 8:27pm

Worked for me. Thank you!
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August 11th, 2011 10:36am

I recommend an immediate backup of critical data files. Scan your rig frequently for malware. Windows MVP, XP, Vista, 7. Expanding into Windows Server 2008 R2, SQL Server, SharePoint etc. I feel badly for my American friends who have to endure the extremists in Washington who are bankrupting the nation over ideology. My page on Video Card Problems is now my most popular landing page. See my gaming site for game reviews etc. Developer | Windows IT | Chess | Economics | Hardcore Games | Vegan Advocate | PC Reviews
August 11th, 2011 10:58am

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