Why does File Explorer show drives redundantly?

elevadu · Aug 12, 2024

I just plugged in an old USB drive on my new-ish Windows 11 laptop, and went to check This PC for drive space remaining, but after expanding it, noticed the USB drive shows twice in the left panel.

Why does it do this? This is just noise, junk. I only need it to show within This PC.

I'm not even seeing a setting to have it display in one place or another. I really don't need it side-by-side to This PC and Network.

Brink · Aug 12, 2024

Hello, and welcome.

Removable drives are shown as separate groups in the navigation pane of File Explorer by default in addition to being shown under the This PC group in the navigation pane.

You can turn this off using the method in the tutorial below.

Add or Remove Duplicate Drives in Navigation Pane of File Explorer in Windows 11 Tutorial

This tutorial will show you how to add (show) or remove (hide) the drives showing twice in the navigation pane of File Explorer for all users in Windows 10 and Windows 11. Removable drives are shown as separate groups in the navigation pane of File Explorer by default in addition to being shown...

www.elevenforum.com

Berton · Aug 12, 2024

elevadu said:
I just plugged in an old USB drive on my new-ish Windows 11 laptop, and went to check This PC for drive space remaining, but after expanding it, noticed the USB drive shows twice in the left panel.

View attachment 104420

Why does it do this? This is just noise, junk. I only need it to show within This PC.

I'm not even seeing a setting to have it display in one place or another. I really don't need it side-by-side to This PC and Network.

My 3 drives show that way also.