What are the hidden system partitions of Windows and whether you can remove them
Vindovs / / December 19, 2019
If you own a PC or laptop with Windows 7, 8, or 10, you may notice that on the drive, in addition to the usual sections C & D, there are other, hidden partitions. Layfhaker explains what they need and whether you can remove them.
Types of system partitions
The number and the contents of the hidden partition vary from manufacturer to manufacturer. But as a rule, the following sections can be found on Windows computers.
See "Reserved system"
Windows 7, 8 and 10 create a section "System Reserved" when you install them. Windows does not assign this section the letter, so it is usually not seen in the "Explorer". But if you ran "Managing Partitions" or a similar tool, you must have noticed this section. Why is he the system?
See "Reserved system" has two functions.
- Firstly, it contains a data manager and system load. It is from here that the system load.
- Secondly, there are the files used by the system for BitLocker encryption utility. It is necessary to boot the system if you choose to encrypt a system partition.
See "Reserved system" occupies 100 MB of space in Windows 7, 350 MB in Windows 8 and 500 MB for Windows 10. Typically section is created during system installation and is located before the main system partition.
partition recovery
This section contains system images from the manufacturer, needed to restore the system to the factory settings. If you delete this partition, you will make it impossible to return to the factory settings in the Windows Recovery Environment, or through the recovery utility from the manufacturer.
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Some notebook makers such as HP and the ASUS, create on their disks even one extended partition. It may contain drivers for the laptop, additional software, firmware for updating the BIOS and other system data.
How to remove or hide the system partition
Before you change or delete the system partition, consider these points.
- Not to do so, if your computer or laptop is under warranty.
- It should make a copy of the section, just in case. For example, to keep the license on the system, acquired together with a laptop.
- Have a boot disk with Windows, to reset the system if something went wrong.
How to delete a partition
If you still want to delete the system partition to free up space or get rid of pre-installed applications, you do not need, it can be done in several ways.
Firstly, you can use these programs to manage the partitions as Acronis Disk Director or Paragon Partition Manager. Either delete the partition in the standard "Office partitions» Windows.
Second, you can simply delete the unwanted sections from the command line.
Open a command prompt as administrator and type:
diskpart
Then displays a list of topics:
list disk
Note the number of your section and type:
select partition partition_number
Finally, we introduce:
delete partition override
And unwanted sections removed.
How to hide a partition
Typically, system partitions do not appear in the "Explorer" and not particularly noticeable to the user. But if one of the system partition for some reason became visible and annoying you, you can easily hide.
Call the "Managing Partitions". To do this, you can press the Windows + R and type diskmgmt.msc. Then, look for a section, click on the right mouse button and select the menu item "Change Drive Letter and Paths." Then remove the drive letter.
Now an unnecessary section is no longer displayed in the "Explorer".
How to prevent the creation of a reserved section
You can prevent the creation of a reserved section when installing Windows, although doing so is not recommended. But you can install the boot files on the system partition.
- Begin installing Windows, and then press Shift + F10, to invoke the command line window.
- enter diskpart and press Enter.
- Create a new partition in the unallocated space. For example, if you are installing on a blank disk, you can simply select it in its entirety. Or to create a separate partition for your documents and other data, if you want.
- Continue installation. When prompted to create a new partition for the system, simply choose the one created in the preceding paragraph.
So you're fit and boot files, and system in one section. However, you can not use BitLocker. On the other hand, reduce the number of sections occupied by the system. This can be useful if you install Windows second system and do not want to make it the fruit of sections.