Recent observations of two black hole candidates ( GX 339-4 and J1753.5-0127 ) in the low-hard state ( L _ { X } / L _ { Edd } \simeq 0.003 - 0.05 ) suggest the presence of a cool accretion disk very close to the innermost stable orbit of the black hole .
This runs counter to models of the low-hard state in which the cool disk is truncated at a much larger radius .
We study the interaction between a moderately truncated disk and a hot inner flow .
Ion-bombardment heats the surface of the disk in the overlap region between a two-temperature advection-dominated accretion flow and a standard accretion disk , producing a hot ( kT _ { e } \simeq 70 keV ) layer on the surface of the cool disk .
The hard X-ray flux from this layer heats the inner parts of the underlying cool disk , producing a soft X-ray excess .
Together with interstellar absorption these effects mimic the thermal spectrum from a disk extending to the last stable orbit .
The results show that soft excesses in the low-hard state are a natural feature of truncated disk models .