# System (z:)



## frank b (Nov 5, 2003)

All of a sudden, when I open the folder that says this PC, that shows what is on the hard drive as far as downloads and drives, there appeared a drive called SYSTEM Z. I can not get in to that drive to see what it is. When I click on it, it says I do not have permission to access. Could this be some type of virus? Do I just delete this drive?


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## mnn2501 (Apr 2, 2008)

What Operating system?
What happens if you click OK on the pop-up?


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## frank b (Nov 5, 2003)

I am using windows 8.1. It is not a pop up. When I went to the file explorer folder where it shows documents, downloads, OS (C), videos, etc. It was in the section that says devices. When I clicked on it, it said access denied. I rebooted my computer not that long ago and system Z does not show up. Any idea what that was?


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## mnn2501 (Apr 2, 2008)

Hard to tell now, but did you have a flash drive or something else plugged into a USB port?


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## frank b (Nov 5, 2003)

I did have a flash drive plugged in but that showed up as a USB device plus the system Z device was there also. After I pulled out the flash drive, the system Z device was still there.


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## Nevada (Sep 9, 2004)

It's probably either a networked drive or a virtual memory partition. It could have been created by the system, but might also have been created by ether you or an installed application configuring a network resource.

This isn't specific to Windows 8.1. While you can assign any unused drive letter you wish to a mapped network drive, Windows will automatically suggest a drive letter for you. By default, mapped networked drives will be assigned drive letters from the end of the alphabet (drive Z:, of course) and then work backwards for additional mapped drives. It's just a convention that Windows uses so you can see at a glance which drives are local and which are networked. Local drives will be assigned letters at the beginning of the alphabet, while network and virtual drives will be assigned letters at the end of the alphabet.

If it's a virtual memory partition that was created by the system then the fact that it's there is an indication that you might be low on memory. The system only creates a virtual memory partition when you run out of memory at some point.


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## frank b (Nov 5, 2003)

Thanks for the info.


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