ESP drive showing up suddenly

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M

madcoil

Distinguished
Sep 25, 2008
19
0
18,510
So my computer all of a sudden is showing a F drive listed as ESP which from what I can find is something called an EFI system partiition. The only thing that has happened was time warner came out today and set me up with a new modem. It sounds like this is nothing bad to have show up, but I'm confused why it suddenly did. A few questions..

1. Was the partition always there and it is just visible now for some reason?
2. Should/can I delete it?
3. If I shouldn't delete it, is there a way to hide it?

Most important thing is I don't want it to be something bad and I simply get a bit freaked out when anything that wasn't there just shows up out of the blue. Any help that someone can offer would be greatly appreciated.
 
Solution
Dark Lord of Tech
Leave it alone.

ESP contains the boot loaders or kernel images for all installed operating systems (which are contained in other partitions on the same or any other local storage device), device driver files for hardware devices present in a computer and used by the firmware at boot time, system utility programs that are intended to be run before an operating system is booted, and data files such as error logs.

WIKI.
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Dark Lord of Tech

Dark Lord of Tech

Retired Moderator
Aug 18, 2009
128,614
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Leave it alone.

ESP contains the boot loaders or kernel images for all installed operating systems (which are contained in other partitions on the same or any other local storage device), device driver files for hardware devices present in a computer and used by the firmware at boot time, system utility programs that are intended to be run before an operating system is booted, and data files such as error logs.

WIKI.
 
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Solution
M

Mr Robot

Commendable
Aug 11, 2016
1
0
1,510


I have the same problem and that doesn't explain why it suddenly pops up. I have never seen that drive before and now it shows up out of nowhere. What you just explained is true though but it's just weird that it now randomly shows up.
 
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D

dinilla

Commendable
Aug 13, 2016
1
0
1,510




This past week the same thing has happened to me when I brought up my PC page. I had a f drive labeled as an ESP drive of close to 500mg of which 400 mgs was unused . When I clicked on it I was told I couldn't access the drive and it wouldn't let me delete it either.
So I ran a virus scan of my computer and no malware came up. Yes I was freaked out too thought it was some kind of malware. I am running windows 8.1 . Yesterday I wanted to transfer some files to an external hard drive so I plugged it into my F drive port slot and after I unplugged my external hard drive the ESP drive was gone. So really have no idea how it got there or where it went . Another thing that happened last week was when I was running my Disc Cleaner program and ran it for my whole system it showed 2 C Drives as it was defragmenting and optimizing my drives. As I think of it last week I ran my disc cleaner with my external hard drive plugged into my F slot because my external hard drive told me I had errors on it so I was cleaning up my external hard drive along with my computer drives. Maybe that's where it came from it could have been left over files from my external hard drive. I am in my late 60s and still learning about computers this is my third computer and still can be confused about things
 
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E

ebay0

Jan 21, 2019
2
0
10


 
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E

ebay0

Jan 21, 2019
2
0
10
This drive only appeared twice on my computer after I upgraded to Windows 8.1. Thought is was identity theft malware. Not so sure it is not being manipulated for that purpose. I reinstalled Windows and the drive disappears. And did not upgrade.
 
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