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Is it safe to remove hidden "Generic Volume" storage volumes from the device manager?
tamberg
Posted 2012-01-18T14:32:16.660
Reputation: 472
Safe to remove hidden storage volumes?
Answers
2
No
Its never safe to remove any volumes, ever. Unless you know you want to remove them.
The question is why do you want to do it? What problems are you experiencing?
Generic Storage volumes are like USB drives, virtual drives (poweriso), virtual drives for virtual machines.. etc.
Unless its causing you problems there is no need to remove it.
PS- Some notebooks also use Generic Storage Drives for SD/MMC slots.. and usually when you insert a card it will re-jig the driver to the appropriate driver eg. SD or MMC.. cant be both at the same time.
-EDIT (The OP commented that he is experienced intermittent freezing in windows - that's why he was browsing the device manger to find the culprit)
Random freezing could be caused by a failing Hard Drive, as its hits bad block, the whole computer stops for a second or more.
- You should Test your HDD.
- If the HDD is OK then think Malware antimaleware.. if no virues..
- Reinstall windows..
If still doing it.. most likely Motherboard/GFX/RAM (Hardware related)-- then you need more intense testing, most likely by an experienced Technical person..
Hope this can help solve the issue.
Piotr Kula
Posted 2012-01-18T14:32:16.660
Reputation: 3 538
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Actually, it is.
I've done it several times before with no adverse effects whatsoever. The only "catch" is that if you plug in the devices later, Windows will have to reinstall the driver. But that's nothing troublesome at all.
user541686
Posted 2012-01-18T14:32:16.660
Reputation: 21 330
Thanks. Should have waited for your answer before deleting them... – tamberg – 2012-01-18T14:59:44.790
Has deleting them caused you problems now? Why did you want to delete it in the first place. You can always use windows restore and go back a day or two, or to the day it was working fine. – Piotr Kula – 2012-01-18T15:05:04.580
No problems so far. We'll see after a re-boot. – tamberg – 2012-01-18T15:28:18.270
Got the impression my system is no less stable. Random freezes from time to time. Can't proof it though. – tamberg – 2012-01-27T11:37:46.153
1Hi- well, random freezing could be caused by a failing HDD'' as its hits bad block. Test your HDD. If its ok then think malware antimaleware.. if no virues.. reinstall windows.. If still doing it.. most likely MOtherbaord/GFX/RAM-- then you need more intesne testing.. hope you solve the issu – Piotr Kula – 2012-01-27T14:05:49.940
-1 I have no idea what this answer is based on... pretty darn sure it's wrong. – user541686 – 2012-01-27T16:57:48.497