Strange drive letter shows up / disappears

[Qbah]

Recently I have noticed a new letter showing up in the list of drives in My Computer. I have:

- C (120GB SSD)
- D (500GB HDD)
- E (1TB HDD)
- F (DVD)

This extra drive, when it's displayed, is given the letter Q: and I can't access it at all. Doesn't show its size either. Most of the time this drive in not there, it only shows up occasionally (can't reproduce what exactly triggers it). It's labelled as a Local Disk and has a used / free size of 0. It doesn't show up in Computer Management -> Disk Management either. Any idea what that is?

Windows 7 HP 64bit with all updates. Here's a pic:

 

[Coup27]

does it show up in device manager under disk drives?

 

[Meghan54]

Do you have a built in USB port on a printer that's connected to your computer? If so, ss the printer always on or turned on only when you're going to use it?

If your answer to those q's is yes, that's what your Q drive probably is.

 

[Qbah]

Coup27 -> It doesn't show up in device manager.

Meghan54 -> I have a printer, it's not connected to the PC though. I use it very rarely, it's put in a closet and I take it out only when I need to print something. It's a HP Photosmart Plus.

USB devices that are connected now:
- Xbox Wireless Gaming Receiver
- iPhone (no change with or without it connected)
- Logitech camera
- Logitech mouse + keyboard

I'm worried I have something nasty that MSE doesn't detect or something... Nothing hardware-wise changed in my PC for the past 9 months (bought the SSD in December) and this drive has been showing up since two months or so.

 

[corkyg]

This may provide a clue . . .

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...-q-drive/4b98ad88-b3f0-4362-b315-1a7bfbf7e4f0

 

[Qbah]

This may provide a clue . . .

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...-q-drive/4b98ad88-b3f0-4362-b315-1a7bfbf7e4f0

Thanks!!

Yep, I downloaded a Trial of Office roughly two months ago. That put my mind at ease 🙂