How-To Hide a System Partition

I'm sure you have experienced it before. You spend a lot of time tweaking and configuring your computer.  And of course, the manufacturer already has some things pre-configured before you even break the box open..

Then ...Dun, Dun, Daaaaa!... Microsoft happens!

Along comes Microsoft and their infallible patches, security updates and version releases.  Shortly afterwards, you started noticing something was different. Maybe it's just a minor annoyance. Maybe it's something major!

This exact scenario just happened to one of my customers today. I got a call from someone panicking because the windows started telling them that they were out of disk space. 

"Hurry up! I need help! My computer is telling me every five minutes that my hard drive is out of space. I have a major project and I need as much drive space as possible. This can't be happening right now!"

Within seconds after looking at the computer I was able to determine that the problems were not the suspected end of life as we know it. The main boot volume and data volumes were just fine and had well over 75% free space left. However, at a glance I could see that the usually hidden system partitions were visible and jam-packed with less than 1% space available.  (This is not unusual, as all manufacturers have their own hidden partitions that are given just barely enough space to hold the programs and settings necessary to recover the computer back to factory default.)

A quick look at the system's update history and it was obvious that Microsoft had updated to the latest version release just a few days prior. That update "flipped a switch" that made that recovery partition visible by assigning a drive letter to it.  Windows was just doing its job by notifying the user that one of their partitions was running out of space and in critical need of more elbow room.

How to fix it

The easiest way to fix this is to simply remove the drive letter using DISKPART. To do this, you will want to open the command prompt with elevated privileges:

1. Begin by clicking on the START button
2. Type in the word:  COMMAND
3. Press and hold the CONTROL and SHIFT keys while opening the command prompt from the programs list
4. Confirm that the command window is truly an administrative mode by verifying the word "ADMINISTRATOR:" is on the title bar
   
5. In the command prompt, start the DISKPART utility by typing in:  DISKPART
6. Press the ENTER key
7. Now show a list of all the volumes on the drive by typing: LIST VOLUME
   
8. Identify the volume number for the offending partition, in this example it's "VOLUME 0" assigned as the "I" Drive
9. Select this volume by typing:  SELECT VOLUME <number of your volume>
10. Press ENTER
11. Now remove the drive letter, type:  REMOVE LETTER=I
12. Press ENTER
13. Now type in: EXIT
14. Press ENTER and then close your command prompt

As with all things Windows, there is always more than one way to skin a cat. I just find this way to be the most efficient to get the job done.