How To Hide The Recovery Partition In Windows 10

On most PCs, the recovery partition is hidden by default and doesn’t appear in the File Explorer (Windows Explorer). One needs to open Disk Management to view the recovery partition. That said, on some PCs, the recovery partition might appear in File Explorer.

Since the recovery partition includes crucial files required to restore your Windows operating system, you might want to hide the partition from File Explorer to avoid accidentally deleting files or formatting the partition.

Hiding recovery partition or any other partition from Windows Explorer is relatively easy in Windows. All you need to do is remove the assigned partition letter (drive letter) from the partition. This can be done either via Disk Management, Command Prompt, or third-party software.

Method 1 – hide recovery partition using Disk Management

Method 2 – hide recovery partition via Command Prompt

Method 3 – hide recovery partition using Partition Hider software (free).

Method 1 of 3

Hide recovery partition via Disk Management

Step 1: Open Disk Management. To do so, type create and format hard disk partitions in Start menu search box, and then press Enter key.

Alternatively, you can type Diskmgmt.msc in the Start menu search box or Run command box, and then press the Enter key.

Step 2: In the Disk Management, right-click on the recovery partition (refer to the picture below) that you want to hide, and then click Change Partition Letter and Paths to open the same.

Step 3: Click the Remove button, and then click Yes button when you see the confirmation box with “Some programs that rely on partition letters might not run correctly. Are you sure you want to remove this partition letter?” message to remove the partition letter.

That’s it! The recovery partition should no longer appear in Windows Explorer, File Explorer or This PC.

To show the recovery partition in File Explorer again, open Disk Management, right-click on the recovery partition, click Change Partition Letter and Paths option, click Add button, and then select a partition letter for the partition. That‘s it!

Method 2 of 3

Hide the recovery partition using Command Prompt

You can hide a drive using Command Prompt as well. It other words, you can assign or remove a drive letter from Command Prompt as well. Here is how to do that:

Step 1: Open elevated Command Prompt. To run Command Prompt as an administrator, type CMD in Start menu search box, right-click on Command Prompt, and then click Run as administrator option.

Step 2: In the elevated Command Prompt, type the following commands and press Enter key after typing each command to view all partitions.

Diskpart

List volume

Step 3: The next step is to select the partition that you want to hide. To select the partition, type the following command.

Select volume X

In the above command, “X” is the partition number that you obtained in the previous step.

Step 4: Finally, type the following command to remove partition letter from the selected partition (removing the partition letter automatically hides the partition from File Explorer).

Remove letter X

Replace “X” with the actual drive letter of the recovery drive.

That’s it!

To add the partition letter and show the partition again in File Explorer

Step 1: Follow Step1, 2, and 3 in the above method to obtain the partition number of the partition that you want to show in the File Explorer again.

Step 2: Type the following command to select the partition.

Select volume X

(“X” is volume number)

Step 3: To assign the partition letter to the selected partition, execute the following command.

Assign letter X

(“X” is the drive letter that you want to assign)

Method 3 of 3

Hide recovery partition using third-party software

Windows Drive Hider is a free utility designed to hide one or more partitions from File Explorer. Download and launch Windows Drive Hider, select the partition that you want to hide, and then click the Hide Partition button.

The Drive Hider program is compatible with all recent versions of the Windows operating system, including the latest Windows 10. The downloaded zip file or Windows Drive Hider includes a portable version of the software which doesn’t require an installation. Open up the folder labeled Portable to find the software.

Download Windows Drive Hider