Strange extra HD that is not there

Using DD suite 10 and using a Western Digital 1 gig <wd1001fals-00j7b 05.0>
hard drive and an Asus 5Q Pro MB, I keep seeing a spare (non existant) 8 GB hard drive. it shows under XP32bit in Acronis only and keeps the Suite and keeps messing with True Image from working...anyone ever hear of this?
I have 3 Sata HDs and 1 Sata DVD. Acronis shows 4 HDs and lists this invisible 8GB as drive 0 and when I start it I get "Failed to write to the sector 0 of hard disk 1" (which is this fake 8GB disk).

Once inside it is disk "Config Disk 0 1.25" "IDE (0) Secondary Master"
and the actual hard drive as "IDE (0) Secondary Master"
Which leaves me to believe it is installed somewhere along the line on my HD...

I cannot seem to find any issues by searching so if I missed it, I appologize.

I even tried eraseing the MBRs, using the WD format utilities, MBR utilities, zeroeing the HD, etc. before installing WinXP (Again) and it still shows up...funny thing if I use the CD to boot the system, sometimes its there and sometimes its not...driving me insane...
any help appreciated,
Thanks!
GR

 

Can you post a screenshot of DD (in Manual Mode) or Windows Disk Management showing the problem?

Do you have any flashdrives plugged in?

 

That was the first thing I thought, however, I went into my Bios and shut off the other hard drives, and WinXP installation showed it when booting from the CD?!?! No USBs in the system, I have a USB wired mouse and USB wired keyboard and thats it...

I think I have the images attached..Sorry they are out of order...


Thanks!
GR

 

Does it show up in Disk Management?

Does it show up in the BIOS as a drive?

Does it show up in the Device Manager as one of your drives? If so, what details are there?

If the XP CD shows it, it can't be a DD-only problem.

Are you using the latest build of DD (2,160 or later)?

 

Is it by chance the ASUS Motherboard operating system Express Gate?

 

Does it show up in Disk Management? Only in DD10..thought of something I was using
WIN7 on another drive and used OSS..could it place a patched MBR or area like this on my HD?
The other 2 hard drives are NOT affected...

Does it show up in the BIOS as a drive? Nope...

Does it show up in the Device Manager as one of your drives?
Good idea, forgot to look there Yes it is...grrrr I am going to disable to see what happens....

If so, what details are there?
will post pics below

If the XP CD shows it, it can't be a DD-only problem. True...

Are you using the latest build of DD (2,160 or later)? Yes, downloaded last week and dbl checked now.

 

I thought I had that all turned off, dbl checked and it is off in BIOS and I have yet to install any non Windows software other than Acronis DD10 and True Image..sigh, worth a shot though...thanks!

GR

The strange thing is it only does this on this Hard Drive, whcih I was using as the main and only for a little bit to install Win7 faster, less looking, etc. The other 2 HDs do not show this...so that was why I was thinking something was installed into this somehow...I even used Western Digitals' own format, delete, wipe, programs..and still this...does not appear if this HD is not attached to the chain...weird..so trying to narrow it down between if it could be the HD and if the OSS or soemthing, could have hidden an 8GB suprise for me

 

UPDATE:
I still do not know why/how/what it is/was.
I went into the device manager and disabled it. It took about 4 restarts before it stopped appearing....

Very strange, but now all programs show just the normal HDs and DVD drive, nothing else.

Thanks for everyones' help.


GR.