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Hello,
After a recent update to my Surface using Windows 8.1, a drive appeared out of no where. It is drive "E:/RTL_UL" and has a couple of files on it associated with a realtec LAN device. The only exe file on it is "RTK_NIC_DRIVER_INSTALLER.sfx.exe"
I do plug this into a USB hub sometimes which does have a LAN dongle plugged into it. I also have a separate PC running the latest Windows 10 that I also plug into that hub sometimes. (I don't the Surface & the PC plugged into the hub at the same time) It now has a new drive that shows up out of no where. I'm sure it's connected to an update to a driver, etc concerning that LAN dongle. I have not run the exe file in there & I'm not sure if I should. It showed up after an update on both of my machines. The extra drive stays available on my Surface no matter if it's plugged into the USB hub or not.
Anyone have any ideas of if I should tell it to eject the drive? The dongle still works fine, so I don't see any problems there, but I never did direct it to create that drive.
thanks for any help
Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.
Answer accepted by question author
I found out the answer because it happened on another computer of mine. It shows up when I plug in my USB LAN adapter. So, it's like a driver/utility for install when using the adapter. Although Windows 8.1 knows how to use the adapter w/o using those files. Thanks
Hi,
Thank you for posting your concern here at the Microsoft Community forum.
If dongle is working fin it is safe to eject the drive. If issue persist, you can check Disk Management to see if the drive is detected there:
Method 1: Follow these steps:
If the drive is detected, then right click on the flash drive or thumb drive and then choose change drive letter and paths to assign a new path.
**Method 2:**If issue persist, perform System Restore and check if it helps. If issue persists, You can also try performing System Restore and check if it helps:
Hope this helps. If you need further assistance with Windows, let us know and will be glad to help.
Hello,
Both of my machines had this problem occur once I did the update. One of them I ejected it & the drive disappeared. The other machine, I ran the .exe file on the drive & eventually the drive disappeared.
So, for some reason realtek somehow mounted a virtual drive which I don't think I've ever seen an update do. Anyway, now my problem is gone.
Thanks for all of the support!
I would consider this closed now
Hey John,
Thanks for your help...Any idea of why it would create a drive? It only happened after I ran Windows update, which I believe included an update to the Realtek driver as well, but I don't remember for sure.
Thanks again!
I have a problem with this driver not installing in my surface, could you please send me somehow the files that showed up in that CD drive?
Kind regards
Hello,
The best thing for you to do is go to the device manufacturer to see if they have software (especially a driver) for it. They may even have more up to date versions available. I can't give you any files from the time when I first posted my question. Once my problem was fixed, those files "disappeared".
