Orange triangle with a ! inside when using File Explorer selecting my PC

[sinclm]

This symbol appears beside my D and E drive partitions. These only appeared after I had to download W11 from the Cloud after I had a boot problem and could not start windows. I cannot see any obvious error in accessing the drive contents.

Regards Michael

[NonSequitur777]

@sinclm,

Welcome to our HP Community forum!

Yes, been there, done that, so to speak.

At least in my experience, for what it is worth, that orange triangle with the "!" on your D-colon and E: drives after a Windows 11 Cloud reinstall usually just means Windows flagged the drives for a routine file-system check.

Quick Fix:

1. Open Command Prompt as Administrator

2. Copy/paste/Enter:

chkdsk D-colon /f         (The "-colon" = : because HP changes it into an emoji) 

Followed by:

chkdsk E: /f

Followed by:

sfc /scannow

Followed by:

DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth

1. Reboot when prompted.

These steps should clear the warning in most cases. Some of these steps may take quite a while to complete -no worries.

Also quickly check: Settings → Privacy & Security → Device Encryption to be sure BitLocker isn't paused.

If the warning comes back, back up your data and check drive health with CrystalDiskInfo or HP Diagnostics.

Kind Regards,

NonSequitur777

[sinclm]

Thankyou for the information. As you also mentioned Encryption, I see that Encryption is selected but temporarily suspended until the next restart. However restarting has not removed this message.

Michael

[NonSequitur777]

@sinclm,

That explains the warning icon — the orange triangle appears because BitLocker / Device Encryption is currently suspended on those partitions. A normal restart should resume it, but sometimes it does not automatically re-enable after a Cloud recovery.

Manual fix (recommended):

1. Open Control Panel

2. Go to BitLocker Drive Encryption

3. Next to D : and E:, click Resume protection

4. Restart the PC once more

The warning icon should disappear after that.

If you do not want the drives encrypted (my preference incidentally):

• You can choose Turn off BitLocker instead

• The warning will also disappear after decryption completes

Kind Regards,

NonSequitur777

[sinclm]

A restart this morning did not resume Encryption. The path I have is Control Panel>System and Security>Device Encryption. For the 😧 and E: drives with the Orange Triangle the only option I have is Back Up Your Recovery Key.

Any more thoughts?

Regards Michael

[sinclm]

Thank you for your help and suggestions. They lead me to try removing the encryption, rebooting then applying Encryption again. The Orange triangles with ! has now gone.

Regards Michael

[NonSequitur777]

@sinclm,

Outstanding! -Glad that your issue has been resolved!

Warm Regards,

NonSequitur777