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Blue question mark over my hard drive?

Before ive been having trouble about my hard drive randomly getting that blue question mark, but i get it fixed by just restarting my pc. but now just restarting my pc doesn't work. please help.. all my important files are there... 
Is the device ‘seen’ under disk management?
Is the device ‘seen’ under My Computer?
Does the hard drive have a letter assigned?

I’ve found this here https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/for... which fixed the same problem for the user but in their case their hard drive was hidden:

[Start] [Run] [Regedit]
Registry Key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Environment
Data Type: REG_SZ [String Value] // Value Name: DEVMGR_SHOW_NONPRESENT_DEVICES
Modify/Create the Value Name [DEVMGR_SHOW_NONPRESENT_DEVICES] according to the Value Data listed below.
Value Data: [1 = Show Devices / 0 = Hide Devices]
Virginia - Time Lady.

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Hi Kate, the blue question mark means Windows cannot enumerate the drive letter for that drive

Open Disk Management (accessible by right clicking your Start Button)

Right click that drive and choose 'Assign Drive Letter'

Pick an appropriate letter and click OK

Restart your PC
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Power to the Developer!

MSI GV72 - 17.3", i7-8750H (Hex Core), 32GB DDR4, 4GB GeForce GTX 1050 Ti, 256GB NVMe M2, 2TB HDD

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i checked the disk management and when i opened it there's something about disk 0? im not sure if thats the (D:) drive that was having the blue question mark. under the this pc, its there but i cant open it.

after that i shut down my pc and opened it up again it got fixed but after opening a game that is installed in the disk, a few mins later the game closed and theres that blue question mark again. i tried the Regedit thing then shut down and opened the pc again it got fixed again but im not sure if it might happen again??? im sorry if my explanation is a bit confusing..

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but the blue question mark happens randomly? is it okay if i change the drive letter?

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You can always check the health of the disk with chkdsk C: /scan if problems are found then run chkdsk C: /spotfix
Or use third party tools like HD Tune.
Virginia - Time Lady.

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Hi Kate, yes I would change the drive letter, you can change it back once you system has restarted . . .

It just seems that the drive enumeration in Windows is faulting and this will resolve that . . .
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Power to the Developer!

MSI GV72 - 17.3", i7-8750H (Hex Core), 32GB DDR4, 4GB GeForce GTX 1050 Ti, 256GB NVMe M2, 2TB HDD

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Last updated April 18, 2025 Views 73,428 Applies to: