On most PCs, the recovery partition is hidden by default and doesn’t appear in the File Explorer (Windows Explorer). One needs to open the Disk Management in order 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 fairly 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 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 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 now 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 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: 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 Hide Partition button.
The Drive Hider program is compatible with all recent versions of 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 labelled Portable to find the software.
James Cagney says
Used command prompt and diskpart to remove drive letter. Worked easily. PC would not boot after this. GPT partition on a Dell with Windows 10 that was upgraded from Windows 8. RebuildBCD shows no windows partitions. Thanks for the help in totalling the PC though. Fast and effective.
Fodor Mihai says
Method 2 rocks. Will use it by default from now on instead of Method 1.
Thanks.
Nikola says
I used option 2, hiding it with CMD. It worked, thanks. :D
jone says
the disk recovery keep showing after i reboot my pc ???
Furbian says
Disk management didn’t offer the option to change or remove drive letter for one drive, but did for the others. Using diskpart as suggested here did the job. Thank you.
Fredrik Andersson says
I couldn’t use your first option (diskmanagment) to hide it cause I can only see the partition in there not actually work with it, its locked away. When using “diskpart” I could remove the driveletter and the partition gows away but after a reboot the system mounts it again and I see the drive in Explorer again.
How can keep Windows from mounting the damn drive?
Your first question will probably be if I use a cmd as root and the aswers is yeas of course :).