Suddenly the system (c:) drive does'n show in device manager and in disk management but in exporer. Everything works well but I can't make computer backups anymore and Windows update fails (connection error, althouhg I have good connection). I've run 5 different Trojan removers, Malware killers and run antivirus before booting. No luck. I haven't had this problem before. By the way I run Windows 7 Ult. The only thing I've done is removing partitions from an external USB drive. And later on removed backup profiles grom Norton Ghost 15. When I get strange problems I always get suspicious about Symantec products because of earlier experince. Don't know if I can blame them now. Any way I've also rebuild MBR and BCD with EasyBCD. Can find some similar problems on the net but absolutely no solution or explanation. Have been searching for days now. Anybody any idea?

Hi, First, I suggest to discuss the system (c:) drive issue in this thread to avoid the confusion. For the backup and Windows update issue, please separate a new thread. Now, I suggest testing this issue in Clean Boot. If the issue persists, please refer to the following steps: · Suggestion 1: Update the BIOS and Chipset driver. Suggestion 2: Verify the Virtual Disk service ============================ 1. Click "Start", type "services.msc" (without quotation marks) in the Search bar and press Enter. Note: If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type your password, or click Continue. 2. Right click the "Virtual Disk" service and choose Properties. 3. On General tab click Start. 4. Choose Automatic next to Startup type. 5. Click OK. If the issue persists, please perform a system restore. Regards, Sabrina

Hi Sabrina. Thanks for fast response. I did a clean boot and the drive shows in Device manager and Disk management. What will be the next step to see what is interfering? System restore I've done before without success.

Hi Diderikus, After eliminated the issue by the clean boot steps, we can conclude that it should be caused by some services’ conflict. I suggest we go to take the other steps in the KB article How to troubleshoot a problem by performing a clean boot in Windows Vista or in Windows 7 to narrow down the root cause. Putting your system in clean boot state helps in identifying if any third party applications or startup items are causing the issue. If yes, you may have to contact the program manufacturer for any updates or uninstall and re-install the program. Regards, Sabrina

Hi Sabrina, It's a mystery. I didn't a real clean boot from the beginning but a Safe boot in msconfig. That gave positive results. When I disable all the services and all the startups the problem still occurs. Even when disabling the windows services as well there is no difference. So the safe boot (minimal) is the only way to show the disk in device manager and disk management. If I do a safe boot network (nor minimal) in msconfig the problem returns. I tried to find out in regedit which services are loade in safe boot network compared with safe boot minimal. That's a lot and I couldn't realy identify all of those. But antway it must be in the window files.

Tell us what programs you have currently installed.

Hi Defcon, Recently I haven't installed new programs, may updates. Problem is that Windows updates drivers automaticly. I'v uninstalled some programs to see the difference. Because of the safe boot network difference I tried to uninstall the network driver but it installs it self all the time. I noticed that if I do a safe reboot with network connevtion device manager doesn't show the hard disk but an item called generic mounted drive. Don't now what taht means. Somehow it finds a drive but can't identify it all the way.

Here is a workaround I found that may apply to your situation. http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en/w7itprohardware/thread/35eee15b-69c0-4927-856a-3f0622893074

Hi Defcon, thanks for trying to help me. The method doesn't seem to help me because the item "other devices" doesn't show in device manager (Win7).

After cleaning and trying I've come that far that with normal startup the drive shows in device manager among hidden devices (dísk drives) but as not connected. In safe boot it shows as connected. Any idea what to do?

Well finally! Suddenly I couldn't start Windows att all and was forced to do a startup repair. That solved all of my problems. It seemed to have been a rootkit error but probably not a malware or still a very much unknown. Thanks all of you for trying to help me!