Windows 10 update-Does it create a drive before the actual update
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Thread: Windows 10 update-Does it create a drive before the actual update

  1. #1
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    Windows 10 update-Does it create a drive before the actual update

    I have my laptop set to update Windows 10 automatically. It signals me when it is ready to do the update and then I can select to do the update now or reschedule for a later time. Like most times it wants to do the update when I need the laptop most so I put off the update process for an hour or maybe to the next day.

    About three (maybe four) days ago my laptop let me know an update was available. Being busy at the moment I clicked to do it later. A short while later I was in my email and deleting emails in the spam folder. I was also making sure no important emails were in there (by accident) before I deleted the emails. Of course at this moment my cat decides to jump up onto my laptop keyboard and triggered something. I use Firefox as a browser. I got some pop-ups all of a sudden on my screen and one of them basically locked up my browser and I had to reboot my laptop. All seemed fine after that. Then a short while later I noticed in Windows file explorer that I had a new Drive letter. It contained about 156MBs. So out of curiosity I did a "Properties" and also wanted to see what was in the drive because it seemed odd that one was there to begin with. I did not plug in my phone or a flash drive so wondered where the drive came from. It kept saying I did not have permission to view the contents etc.

    I then noticed that after I let Windows go thru with the update that the Drive was gone all together. So my thought was that the drive was created for the update, once the update was complete the drive was removed.

    My concern though overall is that ever since my cat caused that pop-up issue my laptop has been running a bit slower than usual.

    I ran my AVG free version and it did not detect any issues.

    So my question basically is that is this just a coincidence that the drive was in fact for windows update and has nothing to do with a potential infection caused by my cat triggering a browser lock-up.

    I wanted to start in this forum to find out if the drive was part of a windows update before I went to the virus forum.

    Thanks

  2. #2
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    The drive (actually, technically not a drive but a partition) was likely part of the latest Windows update.

    https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...1-5030b4745459

    https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/for...phantom-drive/

  3. #3
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    Thanks jcd2000. yes a partition not a drive just like the recovery partition for Windows. I remember in the past (20 years) when I could format a hard drive and partition it so I know what you mean to some degree. Those were the days when I would go hunting for parts from junked PCs and build refurbished ones and give to friends of mine who could not afford them. But ohhh, what a nightmare it was when we bumped into a Packard Bell !! followed by throwing myself off a cliff.

    Anyway still wondering why the laptop is running slower than normal. I am presently running TrendMicro Housecall but it has been taking forever to run. I guess when the laptop goes to sleep it stops running. So I made the adjustment to keep the laptop from going to sleep but still running from last night as when i got home the laptop had gone to sleep.

  4. #4
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    TrendMicro scans take forever and makes any PC run slow. Once it has finished, check Task Manager on the Processes tab to see what is using the CPU cycles.

  5. #5
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    ok thanks will do. That is if this old guy does not fall asleep first. 62 years old and worked too hard today :-)

    Its Miller Time!

  6. #6
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    The scan finally finished!!!! It did find 3 viruses and one Malware were Flash updates. My AVG which I ran several times before did not detect them. Prior to "fixing" the viruses and malware the system CPU was constantly very high, now much much lower. Have not had much time since HouseCall finished to take the laptop for a real spin but it seems better.

    Did as you suggested. Ran Task Manager and went to Processes

    CPU - averaging 2-4%
    Memory - averaging 55-57% (most is Thunderbird 500-525MB and Firefox Average 145MB)
    Disk - 2%
    Network - 0%
    GPU - 0-4%

    All the processes running I do recognize. Some I did not I Googled and they are part of Windows.

  7. #7
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    It sounds like you got rid of some unwanted processes. If you click on the CPU heading on the Processes tab of Task Manager, it will show them in order of most CPU usage, and you can see which ones are using the most.

  8. #8
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    Thanks jdc2000
    yup, all is looking better now. I clicked the heading on each process to see where my usage is. Interesting. Thanks for the tip on that. Firebox and thrunderbird are the largest users of memory.

    I am wondering why AVG (free) did not detect the threats that house call did. Think I should be using a different anti-virus program jdc?

  9. #9
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    No antivirus program is perfect. To get a better one you would probably need a paid program. Trend Micro HouseCall works well, but their paid antivirus software has a tendency to slow down the computer noticeably.

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