Windows 10: Hidden Partitions

I realize that certain partitions are hidden for good reason. But the problem I have is that when I do a full system backup twice a month, I open Macrium Reflect and it shows drive letters assigned to four different partitions. As you can see from the image below, the UEFI partition labeled ESP is given the letter E. The Winretool partition is given the letter X. The OS partition is given the letter C. And the Dell PBR partition is given the letter Y. I'm being told that the hidden partitions should not have an assigned letter in Macrium Reflect. This just started happening recently. After I do the backup, the hidden partitions are no longer hidden. They show up in File Explorer, next to the C drive. I have to use a third party partition wizard to remove the assigned letters. Then they no longer show up in File Explorer. Does anybody have a clue to why this started happening and is there something I can do to prevent it from occurring?




:)

 

W7 Hard drive partition issue

to get rid of that 100 meg windows partition that setup creates for you on a new install on a blank hdd:

- press shift+f10 when on the partition management screen in setup <-- this opens a command prompt
- diskpart <-- start the windows command line partition management tool
- list disk <--- list the installed hdds in this computer for the next step
- select disk 0 <- might have to replace 0 with the number of the correct disk
- clean <-- this will erase all data on the disk you selected one step up- dont use the wrong disk!
- create partition primary <- creates a primary partition taking up all space on the drive, adjust the command if necessary
- exit, exit to exit diskpart and the command prompt
- click refresh in partition manager and select your newly created partition and install to that

 

Uninstall problem


Open the Admin Command Prompt:

1. diskpart
2. List disk
3. select disk # where # is the disk that contains hidden partitions
4. list par
5. select partition #
6. delete partition OVERRIDE
7. repeat steps 5 & 6 for the additional hidden partitions.
8. exit

OR:
if you want to clean the whole disk, after step 3 above
Type: clean
Type: exit

 

Getting a new PC tommorow...

• Set up your hardware
• Insert CD/DVD install
• Format a partition of 30GB as a quick format
• Install the OS
• Create a new partition D: for data, and S: for setupfiles
• Put all your install files into S
• Before installing, run windows update
• Once up to date, reboot
• Install AV
• Update AV
• NOW install any drivers
• And then any software
• Top Utils: ccleaner, defraggler, tclock, utramon, winrar, irfanview, wordweb, malwarebytes, speedfan,
• Now create a partition copy of your C: into a hidden partition. If you evey need to reformat, you just copy the setup from the hidden partition
• You might want Acronis Disk Director to do the previous step. Easy