Windows is using my K: drive instead of C: makes no sense

Hi all. As you can see in the picture SYSTEM and other windows things are using files (windows folders) from my K: drive i have for games and other stuff that is not even the same Hard Drive as the C: windows drive. My K: drive goes up to 100% and stays there for some time at startup, its loading like crazy!

While its doing all those things as you see in the picture. i dont even have a folder zero "0" or the letter "o" what the hell is going on? I have show hidden folders and system files on but still i cant find that folder in K: drive. But most importantly, why is windows loading from my k: drive folders and windows files that is not even in my K: drive to begin with? Makes me think i have some kind of malware. i did scan with all my scanners but nothing is found.



windows 10 pro x64 21H2 19044.2075

Here is the k drive at start going to 100% usage



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Paul Black said:

Hello @BlackVen0m,

• Did you perform a Clean Install recently ?
• If you did, did you unplug / detach / disconnect ALL other drives FIRST ?
• If you did, did you delete ALL Partitions leaving a single Unallocated Partition to install Windows on ?

Please post a screenshot of your Disk Management.

Make sure that ALL the text in ALL the columns is visible and showing the whole window.

Now UPLOAD a screenshot of your partitions using one of the following methods . . .

> How to Post a Screenshot of Disk Management
> How to Upload and Post Screenshots and Files at Ten Forums

I hope this helps.

1: Yes
2: No i dont think i did..
3: Yes i am 99% sure i did

Here is the screenshot



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i have another windows, but that is on the Z: drive, so it has nothing to do with that one.

Paul Black said:

Hello @BlackVen0m,





Normally, Windows is installed on Disk 0 [ C: ]. Your Disk 0 is showing as K:.

The reason I asked is because this is quite a common scenario for the reasons I have written below.

 Disconnect ALL Other Disks:

It is highly recommended that you disconnect [ temporarily unplug ] ALL other Disks [ HDD's/SSD's/USB's ] BEFORE installing Windows. The reasons for this are . . .

• You CAN'T accidentally OVERWRITE a connected Disk.
• The BOOTLOADER [ boot configuration files ] will get installed on the correct Disk [ because Windows has the tendency to install the bootloader rather randomly on ANY connected Disk ], and therefore STOP problems with booting once the installation is complete.

Once the installation is complete . . .

• Check that the OS boots correctly.
• Check if the boot order in the BIOS/UEFI settings are correct [ if NOT, adjust accordingly ].
• Reconnect the other Disks.

EXPLANATION:

Windows uses a different partition structure for BIOS/UEFI. During the installation process, Windows asks which Disk / Partition you want to use for the Windows C:\ drive, it does NOT however, necessarily use the same Disk for the other Partitions, and can therefore incorrectly create the hidden recovery partition on ANY attached Disk.

Additionally, for BIOS, if another Disk is left attached, and at a latter stage you remove that Disk, you will find that the OS will NOT boot. If you check the BIOS, you will see that the OS has assigned the AHCI/RAID setting instead of the LEGACY setting and set it up as RAID, therefore breaking the boot process.

---

I hope this helps.

What did you find out when you saw my picture of disk manager? The k drive seems like a whole partition nothing else so how is c: connected to it or windows? if i remove k drive i can boot windows and the resource monitor shows c: as the drive again as it should. What do you think about this?

The K: drive is not the boot drive the Disk 5 is the boot drive where Windows 10 installed.

Paul Black said:

Hello @BlackVen0m,

Just to clarify.

Copy & Paste the following commands into a CMD Prompt and press Enter [ Post the results ]. The results will show the Boot Disk & Partition and the System Disk & Partition. It is something that I wrote that I use a LOT.

Code:

@echo off & echo. & PowerShell "$AAA=Get-Partition | Where-Object {$_.IsSystem -eq 'True'} | Select DiskNumber -ExpandProperty DiskNumber; $BBB=Get-Partition | Where-Object {$_.IsBoot   -eq 'True'} | Select PartitionNumber -ExpandProperty PartitionNumber; Write-Host "' Boot Disk and Partition : Disk' $AAA 'Partition' $BBB" | Out-String -Width 1000 -Stream | Where {$_.Trim().Length -gt 0}"

Code:

@echo off & echo. & PowerShell "$AAA=Get-Partition | Where-Object {$_.IsSystem -eq 'True'} | Select DiskNumber -ExpandProperty DiskNumber; $BBB=Get-Partition | Where-Object {$_.IsSystem -eq 'True'} | Select PartitionNumber -ExpandProperty PartitionNumber; Write-Host "' System Disk and Partition : Disk' $AAA 'Partition' $BBB" | Out-String -Width 1000 -Stream | Where {$_.Trim().Length -gt 0}"

I hope this helps.

I get error on both commands.

First command


Second


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FreeBooter said:

The K: drive is not the boot drive the Disk 5 is the boot drive where Windows 10 installed.

Exactly!