How to Stop File Explorer From Showing External Drives Twice

By Timothy Tibbetts

on 07/13/2023

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A frustrating bug happens when you plug in an external drive, and the drive appears twice in File Explorer. A reader recently asked us about fixing this problem, and here are the steps you can take to stop seeing your external drives twice.

The problem is that Windows will show your external hard drive as a separate drive as expected, but for some reason, also list the drive under This PC with your other fixed drives.

We can fix the problem by deleting a registry entry.

If you'd prefer not to edit the registry, you can download the registry files here.

Open Regedit and copy and paste or navigate to:

Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Desktop\NameSpace\DelegateFolders\{F5FB2C77-0E2F-4A16-A381-3E560C68BC83}

Right-click on {F5FB2C77-0E2F-4A16-A381-3E560C68BC83} and click on Delete.

The second entry will automatically disappear from File Explorer. Take a look.

You're all set; that drive won't appear twice anymore.

If you decide you want to restore the original setting, right-click on DelegateFolders and select New > Key and paste {F5FB2C77-0E2F-4A16-A381-3E560C68BC83}. Once again, the second drive will immediately reappear.

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