How to hide the recovery partition in Windows? How to hide a disk partition in Windows without installing programs How to create a hidden windows recovery partition.

So, you have finished installing the operating system, drivers, updates and programs, checked its performance and stability, were satisfied with the result obtained and want to be able to “roll back” to this system state in case of unforeseen circumstances. Windows 7 is equipped with fairly powerful backup tools that can reduce the time it takes to restore the system. Those who have bought new computers with Windows 7 pre-installed are familiar with the restore function, after which the operating system, and sometimes the contents of the entire hard drive, is returned to its factory state. In this case, user files located on the hard drive may be lost.
If you have an installation disk with the operating system, you are spared from such losses (How to reinstall Windows 7, saving settings and installed programs), but subsequent installation of drivers and updates is inevitable. I offer you a method that will significantly reduce the time spent setting up the system after reinstallation; moreover, it does not require an installation disk. The article uses materials from Vadim Sterkin’s blog and a video report by Valery Volobuev Setting up the Windows Recovery Environment in Windows 7. The algorithm described below does not require specific knowledge and is relatively easy to implement for a home user. We will perform the task in the following order:

• prepare a partition for the future recovery partition;
• create a system image in the Windows RE environment;
• configure the recovery environment;
• Let's reinstall and reconfigure the recovery environment.

Preparing the recovery partition

First of all, we need to create a partition on which we will subsequently place the operating system image file, as well as the file for deploying the recovery environment. There are many ways to perform this operation, I will use standard tools: Disk Management and the command line utility DISKPART. You can read about this in the article “Disk Management in Windows Vista and Windows 7”. We will determine the partition size based on the current occupancy of the partition with the operating system and the availability of free space. For example, if the system takes up about 20 gigabytes, the optimal size would be from 5 to 10 gigabytes. In my example, the section D:\ was first compressed

Figure 1 – compression of partition D:\

Then in the resulting unmarked area

Figure 2 – unallocated disk space after compression

Using the utility DISKPART a primary partition was created, formatted, and a label was assigned to it Recovery and letter R. (DISKPART was used due to the fact that using Disk Management, the fourth partition created will be an additional one. You can experiment with placing the recovery partition on an additional partition.) Run sequentially:
::Start DISKPART
Diskpart

Sel disk 0
::Creating a primary partition on the entire unallocated area of ​​the disk. If necessary, specify the partition number using the LIST PART command
Create partition primary
::Quick formatting of the created partition and assigning the “Recovery” label to it
Format LABEL=”Recovery” quick
::Assigning the letter R to a section:
Assign letter=R
::Stopping DISKPART
Exit

Figure 3 – work in DISKPART

Here and in what follows, we will work in a command line launched with administrator rights. Before moving on to capturing an operating system image, create a R:\ folder WinRE for storing it.

Figure 4 – WinRE folder at the root of the future recovery partition.

Creating an operating system image

First of all, study the article “Creating a customized operating system image”. It describes the principles and tools, namely the utility imagex.exe, part of the Windows AIK. Depending on the bitness of the system, you must use the appropriate version of this utility. I have posted both versions of them on the section D:\ in folder WAIKTools.

Figure 5 – WAIK Tools folder on a non-system partition

I also strongly recommend Vadim Sterkin’s article for review and guidance: “How to quickly determine drive letters in the recovery environment or Windows PE.” This knowledge will help us not to make mistakes in the command syntax for capturing an operating system image. Restart your computer and enter the recovery environment (to do this, press F8 after turning on your computer and select "Troubleshoot your computer" from the advanced boot options menu).

After downloading, launch the command line and text editor: notepad Using the “Open” menu (Ctrl + O) determine the partition letters. In my example, as can be seen from Figure 7, the system section received the letter D:\ , utility imagex.exe is in the folder E:\WAIKTools\ , and the section Recovery– letter F:\ .

Figure 7 – partition letters in the WindowsRE environment

One note: since we will not need to transfer the customized image to another computer, we will use the command given in the “Boot to Windows PE and save the image using the ImageX utility” section of the above article.
Run the command:

"E:\WAIK Tools\amd64\imagex.exe" /capture D: F:\WinRE\install.wim "Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 Custom"

Necessary clarifications:

• "E:\WAIK Tools\amd64\imagex.exe" - Path to the imagex.exe utility. Quotes are used to avoid problems with spaces in the folder name.
• /capture D: - The key indicates the capture of the system image located on the D: partition (as seen in WindowsRE).
• F:\WinRE\install.wim "Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 Custom" - Saving the captured image to the install.wim file (this is important, since in this case only this name is valid) in the F:\WinRE folder. A file comment is specified, and the default compression method is used (compress maximum).

Figure 8 - creating an operating system image in the Windows RE environment

Quit WindowsRE and reboot. Let's move on to the final stage of creating a recovery partition.

Setting up the recovery environment.

In addition to the operating system image file, I decided to place a file on the new partition that would boot into the recovery environment. With this arrangement, it will not depend on the partition with the operating system. As you know, the recovery environment is deployed from an image file WinRE.wim located in the folder Recovery at the root of the system partition. Access to this folder is blocked through Windows Explorer. The file attribute is hidden system. How to place the file in the location we choose?
Let's use command line utilities. First, disable the recovery environment. Please note that Any actions with the recovery environment must be preceded by disabling it! To do this, on the command line run

Reagentс /disable

After running this command the file WinRE.wim will move to the folder c:\Windows\System32\Recovery. From it we will copy the file to the folder R:\WinRE.
Use the command xcopy with key / h:

xcopy /h c:\Windows\System32\Recovery\winre.wim r:\WinRE

Figure 9 – copying the WinRE.wim file

And finally, a few final chords:

/ path ) to the system image file located in the folder specified by the key/ target
Reagentc /setosimage /path R:\WinRE /target c:\Windows
::Set custom path (key/ path ) to the system recovery environment deployment file located in the folder specified by the key/ target
Reagentc /setreimage /path R:\WinRE /target c:\Windows
::Enabling the recovery environment
Reagentc /enable
::Checking recovery environment settings
Reagentc/info

As can be seen from Figure 10, the setup was successful. Do not close the window - the command line will still be needed.

Figure 10 – setting up a custom recovery environment.

It will be interesting to see what changes have taken place in the section Recovery. To do this, enable the display of hidden and system files.

Figure 11 – changing the contents of the R section.

As you can see, the file WinRE.wim in folder WinRE no, but a folder appeared Recovery at the root of the section. Believe me, the file is now in it. I will not dwell on the structure of the Recovery folder - if you wish, you can study its contents, and also compare with the BCD parameters (using the command bcdedit /enum all). All that remains is to protect the section from accidental impact from users. To do this, you need to hide it from Explorer and exclude the ability to work with it in Disk Management. The utility will help us with this again Diskpart. On the command line, run sequentially (the disk and partition numbers correspond to the configuration given in the article):

::Start DISKPART
Diskpart
::Disk selection. If there are several of them, then the number of the required disk is determined by the LIST DISK command
Sel disk 0
::Selecting a section. If necessary, specify the partition number using the LIST PART command
Sel part 4
::Deleting a letter - the partition will be hidden in Windows Explorer
Remove
::Setting the section IDID=27.This ID is set specifically for recovery partitions. It becomes impossible to work with such a partition in Disk Management, which provides additional protection for it
Set id=27

Figure 12 - working with the recovery partition in DISKPART

Changes that have occurred in the system

Firstly, the partition is not visible in Windows Explorer, and it does not have a context menu in Disk Management.

Figure 13 – Explorer and Disk Management Manager.

Secondly, in the Advanced Recovery Methods window in the description of reinstalling Windows, there is no requirement to have an installation disk.

Figure 14 – Windows advanced recovery methods menu.

Thirdly, the recovery environment menu has changed:

Figure 15 – additional menu item in Windows recovery options in the recovery environment

This could have been the end of it. But there is a need to dwell on several nuances that arise after reinstalling the system in this manner. I will reinstall the system from the recovery environment.

Setting up a recovery environment after reinstalling the system

For the purity of the experiment, I will format the partition with the system and the partition with the download files. Moreover, I strongly recommend formatting the “System Reserved” section to avoid confusion with loading in the future.

Figure 16 – formatting partitions in the WindowsRE environment.

No user participation is required during the reinstallation process. You will receive a system identical to the one you had when you took the image.

Figure 17 – beginning of system reinstallation.

The only thing is that after reinstalling you need to make a few changes:

1. Due to a complete rebuild of the BCD, the recovery environment must be reconfigured.
2. hide section in explorer Recovery.

Disable the recovery environment with the command

Reagentc /disable

Turn on display of hidden and system files, open the folder WinRE on the section R:\ and make sure the file exists Winre.wim. If necessary, copy it from the folder Windows\System32\Recovery or from a folder R:\Recovery\xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx. After that delete the folder Recovery on the section R:\ .

Figure 18

Then enable the recovery environment: Reagentc /enable Make sure the settings are correct (note that the name of the folder where the WinRE.wim file is located in the Recovery folder is different. Therefore, before connecting the recovery environment, you can safely delete the old one.):

Reagentc/info

Figure 19 – connecting the recovery environment after reinstallation.

Remove the letter from the partition R:\

Diskpart
Sel disk 0
Sel part 4
Remove
Exit

Your computer is ready for a fresh reinstallation. One final note. While performing numerous reinstallations while preparing this article, I noticed the appearance of an incomprehensible folder in the list of available drives on the “System Protection” tab. This may be due to the missing folder in the system image SystemVolumeInformation or changing section IDs.

Figure 20 – phantom partition in the list of available disks on the “System Protection” tab.

To get rid of the strange folder, disable system protection on this phantom partition and enable it on the partition with the current system.

Conclusion

There are probably easier ways to make reservations, especially using different programs. I don’t pretend that you will definitely use the method described above, but I think it’s convenient and practical. Of course, the system will be updated over time. To keep the image up to date, periodically rewrite the file in Windows RE Install.wim.

During installation, a special hidden partition is created. You may notice this when selecting a drive partition, and especially when creating it. This information is also displayed in the Disk Management utility. In a nutshell, this is a special place in Windows that is reserved by the system for recovery. How to view its contents on your laptop or computer? Is it possible to make it open? How to create a hidden hard drive partition yourself? About all this in our review.

What is the hidden section for?

You can hide your secret files in a hidden section and no one will find them

If you only use your computer to play games or watch movies and read sites on the Internet, you may not need this theme. If you use it more deeply and often delve into the intricacies of its setup and operation, sooner or later you will end up in the disk management utility, where you will find a hidden partition of the hard drive, the space in which is reserved for recovery. What’s most interesting is that the space is occupied, and the drive is not displayed in Windows Explorer.

The main purpose is to store the necessary files for computer backup recovery. But in no case should they be confused with the recovery image, because its size will be much larger than the allocated 100 to 500 megabytes, depending on the version of Windows. The newer the operating system, the more space it takes up. In addition, manufacturers themselves, especially laptops, can provide their devices with a small hidden partition so that they can be painlessly reset to factory settings with the possibility of recovery. Thus, each laptop will display two hidden volumes: system backup and recovery. Most often, their volume will be almost identical.

What does this opportunity give to the average user?

• First, data on a hidden volume is stored separately from public files, so it cannot be affected by various file and drive operations, such as formatting or compression. In this regard, you will be able to avoid some errors associated with the operation of Windows, and with certain knowledge and skills it will be much easier to restore the operating system instead of reinstalling it.
• Secondly, the presence of such hidden recovery partitions will make it much easier to resolve the issue of running several operating systems simultaneously.
• Thirdly, the most vital processes will be reliably protected from the actions of inexperienced users. For example, in Windows 7, the boot loader was stored on the system disk and therefore could be removed quite easily, which led to the loss of computer functionality. Now, to do this, you need to try hard, because these files are stored in a section marked “Reserved by the system.”
• And finally, if you are concerned about the safety of some files and documents, you can hide certain volumes in the settings; this way, an attacker or simply an overly curious friend will not be able to gain access or accidentally delete important data.

How to find a hidden system partition

You can find an existing hidden drive partition quite easily. To do this, you need to launch the built-in disk management utility, with which you can view all the necessary information and perform the necessary operations. How to get into it?

1. On Windows 10 or 8, right-click on the Start button and select “Disk Management”.
2. On older versions, click Start - Computer - right-click - Manage - Disk Management.
3. On all versions, press Win + R and then copy from here and paste diskmgmt.msc into the search bar.

After the utility starts, you will see at least 4 lines: drives C and D, recovery partition and system reserved. Each of them can have the following attributes:

• System - a partition that contains files required for loading and normal operation of the system;
• Active - BIOS defines it as bootable;
• Main partition - allows you to select it to place system files and boot.

If everything is clear with the first two, then “Recovery partition” and “Reserved by the system” are worth understanding in more detail. In the first case, it will be displayed only in the disk management utility, and it is impossible to make it visible using standard tools. You can open the second of them by simply assigning a letter to it, after which it will appear in Explorer.

How to create a hidden section

When automatically created during system installation

When installing Windows from scratch, you can create a hidden recovery partition. In new OS versions it will be created automatically. To do this, a number of conditions must be met:

• Installation from external media (disk, flash drive).
• No more than three volumes created; otherwise, the files will be copied to the already existing active partition.
• The top section where installation is carried out.
• Partitioning the drive from scratch, rather than installing it into an existing partition.

Having reached the stage of choosing an installation location, format the built-in drive, after which you need to delete all existing partitions, and then create at least two new ones, which will eventually appear as drive C or D. If you want to hide very important information from prying eyes, we recommend you need to create three volumes, one of which will not be very large in size, for example, 25–30 gigabytes. In almost all cases, you will notice that the very first thing on the list will be “Reserved by the system” with a volume of 100 to 500 megabytes. What’s most interesting is that you can delete this partition when reinstalling, but it will be created again. If you delete only drive C or D, and leave the hidden partition in place, then the data will be overwritten into the existing “System Reserved” volume. If you want to save the data on drive D and not delete existing volumes, the information will also be overwritten to the hidden partition.

By going to the Disk Management utility, you will be able to see both the main volumes and the hidden ones. To hide a section you want:

1. Right-click on the one you want and select “Change drive letter or drive path.”
2. In the window that opens, hover over the letter and select “Delete.”

Now this drive will not be displayed in Explorer, since it is hidden.

If a hidden partition was not created during installation

For example, you used a computer and realized over time that you need to create a new hard drive partition. But it is impossible to do this using standard Windows tools. Therefore, we recommend that you use the excellent Acronis Disk Director program. With its help, you can perform almost any operation with your hard drive: resize, split, copy, clone, merge volumes, make them hidden and much more. The program costs money, a lot of it, but it's worth it. In addition, we will rarely feel remorse in our minds if we use a pirated copy. So, having found and installed Acronis Disk Director, follow these steps:

1. The first step is to open the main program window, where you will see a list of all your volumes, including the recovery partition and “Reserved by the system.”
2. Select the volume whose size you want to resize by clicking on it once.
3. In the left column you will see a list of operations that can be performed on the selected volume.
4. Select “Split volume”, after which the window for allocating space on the hard drive will open.
5. Enter the size of each volume manually or automatically by moving the adjustment slider.
6. Wait for the operation to complete and click the “Apply Pending Operations” button.
7. If necessary, restart your computer.
8. Next, you should re-open the program and select the volume you need.
9. Select “Make hidden”, after which it will not appear in Explorer.

This way you can change the sections you need and make them hidden when you need it.

Conclusion

As you can see, creating a hidden disk partition is not at all difficult; you just need to perform a few simple operations. However, if you still have questions about the intricacies of the procedure or what the “Reserved by the system” section is for, ask them in the comments.

Very often, after updating the operating system or completely reinstalling it, a new system partition that was previously hidden begins to appear in Explorer. This could be a recovery partition, or a hidden partition with important system files. Such a disk is sometimes full to capacity, and Windows begins to sound the alarm about the lack of free space.

Since this system drive is important for the operation of the computer and is not accessible to the average user for nothing, let’s figure out how to hide the recovery partition from Windows Explorer.

What is a recovery partition?

Trying to hide the recovery partition through Disk Management

In order to hide the recovery partition, you just need to use a special utility built into the Windows operating system. Right-click your computer shortcut and select Control, and in the window that opens - Disk Management.

You can also use the hotkey combination Win And R, and enter the command diskmgmt.msc

In the window that opens, select the system partition that you would like to hide. In our case, this is a section (E:) called “System Reserved”. Also, hidden partitions may be called Recovery, recovery partition, or have no name at all.

Click the right button above the drive and select “Change drive letter..” from the drop-down menu, delete the letter and click OK.

We agree with the warnings, open Windows Explorer and make sure that the partition is again securely hidden.

Removing the recovery partition using the command line

If using the previous method you were unable to solve the problem the first time, you can try to solve the problem through the command line and using the Diskpart utility.

To do this, launch a command prompt as administrator and enter the command diskpart. Next, enter the following commands. Please note that your volume number and drive letter may be different.

After these steps, you should open Explorer and check for the presence or absence of unnecessary partitions.

Finally

This way you can easily get rid of annoying system reminders about running out of free space or hide unnecessary system partitions.

It is not recommended to delete hidden partitions, since the performance of the computer in this case may be at risk. A tiny partition weighing one hundred megabytes can be the reason that Windows will stop starting. And in this case, only a system restore will help.

In some situations, it is necessary to hide a partition of a hard drive or SSD drive on a computer running the Windows operating system. After this, the hidden local drive (hard drive partition or another hard drive, if there are several of them on the computer) will no longer appear in the Windows Explorer file manager.

Why is it necessary to hide a disk partition (disk) on a computer? For greater security and to prevent access to the local disk, it makes sense to make the hidden disk partition “invisible” in Explorer.

For example, the following reasons force the user to make the drive hidden:

• The disk stores important personal or confidential data;
• to protect the disk from unauthorized use;
• to protect system partitions and the system recovery partition on your hard drive.

The Explorer window “My Computer” (“This PC”, “Computer”) displays all drives connected to the computer, except for hidden partitions (hidden local drives). Each local disk corresponds to a specific letter of the alphabet; with the help of letters, disks are distinguished from each other. The user can select a free letter of the alphabet. For greater clarity, you can assign a volume label to the local disk.

On a computer, hidden partitions on the hard drive are protected from outside interference and attention. Keep in mind that it is possible to see hidden drives in Windows through Disk Management or using the Command Prompt.

System partitions are initially hidden for greater security from the actions of inexperienced users. Laptops often have an additional recovery partition - Recovery, which, in most cases, is hidden by default.

Using the Recovery partition, the system is restored to its original state at the time of purchase of the laptop. On some laptop models, the system restore partition appears in File Explorer, so you can hide it from view. Anyway, you won’t be able to use this section for other purposes.

How to hide a drive in Windows? To solve the problem, we will use several tools of the Windows operating system:

• Disk management.
• Command line.
• Registry editor.
• Local Group Policy Editor.

The methods described in the instructions work the same in different versions of the Windows operating system: Windows 10, Windows 8.1, Windows 8, Windows 7.

How to hide a disk partition in Windows using Disk Management

The easiest way to hide hard drive partitions is to use the Disk Management snap-in in Windows.

To enter Disk Management, use one of two methods.

1. Press the “Win” + “R” keys on your keyboard at the same time.
2. In the “Run” window, in the “Open” field, enter the command “diskmgmt.msc” (without quotes), and then click on the “OK” button.

1. Right-click on the “This PC” (“My Computer”) icon. Read about how to return “My Computer” to the Desktop.
2. In the context menu, select "Management".
3. In the “Computer Management” console window, on the left side of the window, follow the path: “Computer Management (local)” => “Storage Devices” => “Disk Management”.

The Disk Management window displays all of the computer's drives, including hidden partitions on a hard drive or multiple hard drives.

The Explorer window (see image above in the article) displays two hard drive partitions (Local Disk “C”, Local Disk “D”) and a DVD-RW drive. In the Disk Management snap-in window, you can see that there are four partitions on the hard drive, including two hidden system partitions (“Disk 0 partition 1”, “Disk 0 partition 2”) created during the installation of Windows on the computer.

For example, you needed to hide the hard drive partition “Local Disk (D:)”. To do this, do the following:

1. In the Disk Management snap-in, right-click on the disk that you want to hide.
2. From the context menu, select “Change drive letter or drive path...”.

1. In the “Change drive letter or paths for X: (Local Disk)” window, click on the “Delete” button.

1. In the warning window, click on the “OK” button. If another warning appears, click on the “Yes” button.

Now you can look at the result of the performed operation in Explorer.

How to make a hidden drive open in Disk Management

To open a hidden drive in the My Computer location of File Explorer, follow these steps:

1. Go to Disk Management, select the disk you want to open.
2. After right-clicking on the drive, click on the context menu item “Change drive letter or drive path...”.
3. In the window to change the drive letter, click on the “Add” button.

1. In the "Add a drive letter or path" window, select the appropriate letter, and then click the "OK" button. The operating system by default offers the first free letter of the English alphabet, in our case “D”.

After this, the hidden hard drive partition will again be visible in Windows Explorer.

How to hide a drive in Windows using the command line

Open the command prompt as an administrator in any convenient way, for example. Next, in the command line interpreter window, run the following commands sequentially (after entering a separate command, press the “Enter” key):

Diskpart list volume

After this, all disks of this computer will be displayed in the command line window.

Enter the command to select the partition number (see the volume number in the command line, opposite the desired disk). In order to select the desired disk, be guided by the size of the local disk.

Select volume X (where X is the volume number)

Then enter the command to hide the selected volume. In the command, after the “equals” symbol, insert the letter of the section to be hidden (I selected the letter “D”).

Remove letter=D

Go to Explorer and make sure that the hidden hard drive partition is no longer there.

How to bring back a hidden hard drive partition in Explorer using the command line

To return everything back using the command line, enter the following commands in sequence (in the “select volume” command, insert the volume number of the hidden partition on your computer, and in the “assign letter” command, insert the letter that corresponds to the hidden disk partition on your computer):

Diskpart list volume select volume 2 assign letter=D

After executing the commands, close the command line interpreter window.

Now you can open Explorer to see the result of your actions: the hidden local drive is visible again.

How to hide a local drive in Registry Editor

A hard drive partition can be made hidden by changing the registry of the Windows operating system.

To launch Registry Editor, press “Win” + “R” on your keyboard and enter the command “regedit” (without quotes).

In the Registry Editor window, follow the path:

Right-click on an empty space in the Registry Editor window, select “New” in the context menu, then “DWORD Value (32 bits)”. Give the parameter a name: “NoDrives” (without quotes).

Right-click on the “NoDrives” option, select “Edit...”. In the Edit DWORD (32-bit) Value window, under Numeral System, switch to decimal, and then enter a numeric value that corresponds to the drive letter in this table:

For example, I want to hide the Local disk “D:”, in the table the letter “D” corresponds to the number “8”, so I must enter this number in the “Value” field.

Click OK, close Registry Editor, and then restart your computer.

To cancel the changes, delete from the registry the previously created “NoDrives” parameter located at the following path:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer

Hiding a disk partition using the Local Group Policy Editor

In versions of the Windows Pro and Windows Enterprise operating systems (Windows 10, Windows 8.1, Windows 8, Windows 7), and derivative editions of these versions, there is a Local Group Policy Editor with which you can hide a local drive on your computer.

Make the following settings in the Local Group Policy Editor:

1. Press the “Win” + “R” keys, in the “Run” window enter the command: “gpedit.msc” (without quotes).
2. In the Local Group Policy Editor window, go to: User Configuration => Administrative Templates => Windows Components => Explorer.
3. Right-click on the Hide selected drives from My Computer option and select Change.

1. In the window that opens, activate the “Enabled” setting, and in the “Options:” field, select one of the specified combinations. In this example, I selected the setting: “Restrict access to drive D”.
2. Click on the "OK" button.

To return the hidden drive to Explorer, in the Local Group Policy Editor, in the “Hide selected drives from the My Computer” window, enable the “Not configured” setting, and then click the “OK” button.

Conclusions of the article

In the Windows operating system, the user can hide a hard disk partition (local drive) that will not appear in the My Computer Explorer window. You can hide a disk using system tools: Disk Management, Registry Editor, Local Group Policy Editor, or the command line.

In the Windows 7 and 8 operating system and why it is needed. Nothing has changed for Windows 10. The same disk is displayed in the Disk Management utility and is intended to protect and store OS boot files. However, if it bothers you or you do not want to allow other users of your PC to manipulate this section, you should hide it. There are a lot of methods to hide a disk reserved by the system in Windows 10. Let's take a closer look at them.

Hide System Reserved using the command line

To hide the System Reserved drive in Windows 10, you should follow a few simple steps:

• Press “Win+R” and enter “cmd”.

• The console will open. Enter the first command “diskpart”. Then we write “list volume” to see all the partitions that the hard drive has.

• Let's assume that Volume 1 is Reserved by the System (in our case, it is the system partition). Often its size is 450 MB.
• Now enter “select volume N”, where N is the partition number.

• After selecting the volume, enter “remove letter=E”, where E is the letter of the volume that you want to hide.
• To exit the utility, enter “exit”.

Now in Windows 10 this section will be invisible.

How to hide a partition in Windows 10 via Disk Management?

Often, in the Windows 10 operating system, you can see the System Reserved section only in the Disk Management utility. Using the same utility, you can hide and display it. To do this we do the following:

• Press “Win+R” and enter “msc”.

• A new window will appear. Right-click on the System Reserved or disk that you want to remove from this list. Select “Change drive letter or drive path...”.

• In a new window, select the disk and click “Delete”.

• The disk will not be deleted, it will only disappear from Explorer.

Hiding the Reserved Section through the Local Group Policy Editor

The entire operating array necessary for Windows 10 to operate is stored on the System Reserved disk. If you want to hide it using the Local Group Policy Editor, your actions should be as follows:

• Press “Win+R” and enter “gpedit.msc”.

• Go to the branch “User Configuration”, “Administrative Templates”, “Windows Components”, “Explorer”. In the window on the right, select “Hide selected drives from My Computer window.”

• Double click to open the parameter and set the value to “Enabled”.

• Afterwards we restart the computer.

Editing the registry as a method for hiding a drive in Explorer

To hide a section using this method, do the following:

• Press “Win+R” and enter “regedit”.

• The Registry Editor will open. Go to the branch “HKEY_CURRENT_USER\ Software\ Microsoft\ Windows\ CurrentVersion\ Policies\ Explorer”. Right-click on the last section and select “New”, “32-bit DWORD Value”. Let's name this parameter "NoDrive".
• The value is set according to the table. In this table we select the value according to the letter of the reserved partition.

A	B	C	D	E	F	G	H	I	J	K
1	2	4	8	16	32	64	128	256	512	1024
L	M	N	O	P	Q	R	S	T	U	V
2048	4096	8192	16384	32768	65536	131072	262144	524288	1048576	2097152
W	X	Y	Z
4194304	8388608	16777216	33554432

• After making changes to the system registry, you should reboot the system.

To learn how to hide the System Reserved section, watch the video: