hidden drive on Win 8.1

I have a HP Pavilion with a terabyte HD.
It used to have two drive partitions the main C: and D: recovery
After running the MS updates today I decided to defrag because there were so many this time.
Upon opening the defrag utility I see I picked up two new drive partitions on it -first is Windows RE and the other labeled \\?\Volume {bcba46c6-9133-a3cb4b949e39}\
I have no idea what they are or where they came from.
Can anybody identify them and tell me where they came from?

 

You will need to post a screenshot of disk management. To do so right click on your Start button and click Disk Management. Expand the new window until all available information is visible and then use the snipping tool to create an image and attach it here.

 

OK, you are thinking you have acquired new partitions because all you have seen previously is C and D in 'This PC'. However the three other partitions will always have been there but having no assigned drive letter they simply do not show in File Explorer > This PC.

That answers your question I believe but the pic raises another intriguing one. The disc has five primary partitions which, according to the rules that govern the universe (as defined by Microsoft) is not possible. MBR disks, which you have, can only have four primary partitions. I have no explanation for that, but if the comp is running problem free I wouldn't worry about it either. I see also that the D partition is being listed twice and again that isn't at all normal. I'll give it some thought as there are definitely abnormalities in your disk layout.

 

Actually as I said I noticed the extra drives in the defrag utility and became suspicious when they didn't show up in my computer listing.
There have been performance problems such as I have to release and renew ipconfig when I wake the PC up and display / speed problems on websites especially FB.
Using Win 8.1 no updates available / IE 10

 

They aren't supposed to show in your computer listing. That's normal.

That's a bit too vague to diagnose but I would certainly run sfc /scannow from an elevated command prompt. This checks that all of your system files are present and in their proper state. I see you are also still using IE10 and say that no updates are available, That's a bit odd as IE11 has been out in Windows Update for ages. Have you been deliberately blocking IE11? You could see if your browsing issues are IE related by trying Firefox or Chrome.

 

my bad I am using IE 11.

That's all good but I am still at WTF are they and where did they come from?

 

ok I have been looking elsewhere and was directed to this on the MS forum:
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...g/00ea7a77-12b7-450b-a6b7-94dae520bcdd?page=1

After much hemming and hawing a MS support engineer says don't worry about it.

I know they didn't come with the machine so am baffled about the preinstalled comment.
In todays business first environment sadly I don't know if you can trust Microsoft anymore.
Spybot S&D and my AV say I'm clean.
So it looks like a case of living with it or switching to Linux.

 

How do you know that? I'm quite sure they did come with the machine and it's just that you haven't previously seen them because you haven't used features that would reveal their presence. New partitions, with the attendant resizing of existing partitions cannot happen by accident or as a result of malware. They were preinstalled by the OEM.

 

*sigh* my original post:
I have a HP Pavilion with a terabyte HD.
It used to have two drive partitions the main C: and D: recovery
After running the MS updates today I decided to defrag because there were so many this time.
Upon opening the defrag utility I see I picked up two new drive partitions on it

Notice my join date?
I've been working on Windows PCs for a long time.
As I said they were not there before and most certainly were not there when I bought this PC new.
Added later by MS or HP apparently.

 

How many times do we have to explain that partitions that have no drive letter - and most computers have such partitions - will not appear in My Computer, or This PC as it is called in Win 8. You have to open disk management in order to see exactly how your disks are partitioned and what role each partition has. It's clear you have never opened disk management until I asked you to do so in post #2.

 

LOL luv the royal we
As I have all drives and partitions are shown in the defragment utility.


BTW just read your post about not being able to install 8.1 on one of your boxes - you think these I'm wondering about are what's you are missing? :wave

 

As you clearly know it all already I'm wondering why you are wasting your time asking questions here.

bye

 

If you are still disputing whether or not these partitions were pre-installed take a look at this, posted today -

http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=287710

HP Pavilion, same five partition layout as your machine with the OS on the third partition, same as yours.