External Hard Drive Question - seeing two Drive Fs


  1. Posts : 55
    Windows 10 Home 64 bit
       #1

    External Hard Drive Question - seeing two Drive Fs


    I have Win 10 Home with two internal drives 128GB SSD (C) containing the Windows OS and a I TB data drive (D). I recently made a disk image of the two drives as source driveswith Macrium and an external Iomega 500GB destination drive (F). Macrium verified that the image was successfully created. I am perplexed that when I look in Windows File Explorer I see two external drive F's both openable and each containing the created Macrium disk image file. Wondering how/why this has happened and if it is possible to remove one of these images with removing both.

    Any guidance would be appreciated,

    Frank
      My Computer


  2. Posts : 4,224
    Windows 10
       #2

    One is listed as a part of the This PC aggregation, while external drives also get a standalone listing a little bit further down in the left-hand pane. If it really bothers you, you can make it go away: see this TF tutorial Add or Remove Duplicate Drives in Navigation Pane in Windows 10.
    HTH,
    --Ed--
      My Computers


  3. Posts : 8,057
    windows 10
       #3

    Without seeming it a guess is it's open an image so you see it as a drive does the two drives show in disk management you did create image not copy drive
      My Computer


  4. Posts : 55
    Windows 10 Home 64 bit
    Thread Starter
       #4

    External Hard Drive Question -seeing two Drive Fs


    Thanks Ed and Samuria for the response and insights. Here is what I see in File Explorer with the Iomega external drive (called G today) shown twice with its Folder containing the 55.9 GB Macrium disk partition image file.
    I am 88 years old and not a PC guru so in layman's terms can I just leave the two iterations of this external drive in place and ignore them. Can I assume that only one of the 55.9GBs are consuming storage space on the external drive?
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails External Hard Drive Question - seeing two Drive Fs-duplicate-external-drive-listing.jpg  
      My Computer


  5. Posts : 16,783
    Windows 10 Home x64 Version 22H2 Build 19045.4170
       #5

    Frank,

    Yes, you can choose to do nothing.

    There is no fault to be fixed.

    "Can I assume that only one of the 55.9GBs are consuming storage space on the external drive?" - Yes. There is only one of them, in fact.

    Windows just has an annoying attitude towards how to display drives, that's all. If you look closely at your diagram,
    - your current selection is on the display of your G:\ drive as a separate entry in the File explorer 'navigation pane'
    - if you look just above that to the other G:\ entry, you can see that it is slightly indented. This entry is part of the display of all the drives that make up 'ThisPC' at the moment. If you double-click on ThisPC then you'll see all its parts contract within it. If you double-click on ThisPC again, all its parts expand again so you 'll see the other G:\ entry again.
    - Windows thinks that is helpful.

    EdTittel's link is to a procedure that removes the separate entry you currently have selected and just leaves the entry shown within ThisPC. It is merely an alteration to the method of dispaly not a change to any disk. You can choose to do it to simplify the display or you can choose not to bother. Whatever suits you.

    Denis
      My Computer


  6. Posts : 55
    Windows 10 Home 64 bit
    Thread Starter
       #6

    External Hard Drive Question -seeing two Drive Fs


    Many thanks Denis for the primer on the way Windows displays drives. Most informative and helpful.

    Frank
      My Computer


  7. Posts : 4,224
    Windows 10
       #7

    Glad you got yourself squared away, Frank ( @fdm2000 ). The tutorial I linked you to has some good explanations, too. @Brink is a terrific tutorial writer.
    --Ed--
      My Computers


 

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