New partitions may appear in File Explorer after installing the Windows 10 April 2018 Update (version 1803)

Anonymous
2018-05-05T00:04:15+00:00

After installing the April 2018 Update to upgrade to Windows 10 version 1803, a new partition appears in File Explorer.  I’m also constantly getting warnings that the partition is low in space, and there are no options to delete this partition.

Windows for home | Windows 10 | Files, folders, and storage

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Anonymous
2018-05-05T00:35:03+00:00

Microsoft is aware that previously-hidden partitions are improperly being assigned drive letters after installing the April 2018 Update.  As a result, they now appear in Disk Management and File Explorer.  These partitions are typically recovery partitions used by the Windows Recovery Environment or by the Original Equipment Manufacturer.  It is not recommended that you attempt to delete or reformat these partitions as this may have adverse effects on your ability to recover Windows.  Microsoft is currently working to address the issue in a future Windows Update, and we’ll update this thread when a solution becomes available. 

(Update 5/14/18: The solution that will soon be released via Windows Update will only prevent this issue from occurring for devices that install the April 2018 Update after the solution is released.  If you've already installed the April 2018 Update and are experiencing this issue, you'll need to follow the steps below if you want to hide these partitions.)

(Updated 7/24/18 to provide a simpler solution.)

Although you may safely ignore previously hidden partitions, you can hide them again by removing the partition’s assigned drive letter.

1.  Select the Start  button, type cmd, select and hold (or right-click) Command Prompt in the list of results, and then choose Run as administrator.

2.  In the Administrator: Command Prompt window, type the following command, where [drive letter] is the drive letter you want to remove, then press Enter.

mountvol [drive letter] /d

3.  The drive letter will no longer appear in File Explorer and Disk Management. You may close the command prompt window. 

________________________________

The original solution using diskpart is provided below:

1. Select the Start button, type cmd and then right-click Command Prompt in the search results and select Run as administrator.

2. In the Administrator:  Command Prompt window, type diskpart and press Enter.

3. Type list volume and press Enter.

4. Make note of the volume number for the drive letter you want to remove.  For example, if the drive letter you want to remove is Drive “G”, note the volume number for Drive G.

5. Type the following command, and press Enter

 select volume**<volume number>**

When typing this command, in place of <volume number>, substitute the volume number you made note of in Step 4.   In the example above, if the volume number for drive G is 5, you would type: select volume****5

6. Type the following command and press Enter.

remove letter= <drive letter>

When typing this command, in place of <drive letter>, substitute the drive letter you want to remove.  In this example, you would type: **remove letter=**G

7. Close the Command Prompt window.

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Anonymous
2018-06-13T01:11:00+00:00

The cure is what Tiero Chi posted. It is marked as the answer. For neatness sake...

(a) Insert Step 6.5 - Exit - to leave DiskPart.

(b) If you've got a CD_ROM & its letter was pushed from D: to E:,

     use Disk Management to change it back as I posted on page 8.

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  1. Anonymous
    2018-06-03T15:58:18+00:00

    I am having the "d: running out of space" issue also.  Below is what I get when I run the list volume command ... I don't see an phantom drive letter.  What next?


      Volume ###  Ltr  Label        Fs     Type        Size     Status     Info

      ----------  ---  -----------  -----  ----------  -------  ---------  --------

      Volume 0     C   OS           NTFS   Partition    465 GB  Healthy    Boot

      Volume 1     D                NTFS   Partition    450 MB  Healthy

      Volume 2         Image        NTFS   Partition     10 GB  Healthy

      Volume 3         ESP          FAT32  Partition    500 MB  Healthy    System

    Click on Explorer (the manilla folder icon on the Quick Launch toolbar at bottom of screen).

    In the left-hand menu click on This PC. Click to make this window full screen.

    D: drive should show up as a red bar, indicating it's nearly full. This would be the drive (partition, actually) which was previously phantom or hidden. Windows 10 Spring 2018 update caused the partition to be given a drive letter (D:), thus making it visible. Windows then generates a low-disk-space warning message.

    Tiero Chi's post of May 4 offers instruction on how to remove the drive letter (D:), thus making that partition invisible again. When it becomes invisible again, you will no longer get the frequent low-disk-space warning.

    There is no harm in that particular partition being nearly full. You just don't want constant messages about it. 

    Hope this helps explain it.

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  2. Anonymous
    2018-06-03T15:03:06+00:00

    I am having the "d: running out of space" issue also.  Below is what I get when I run the list volume command ... I don't see an phantom drive letter.  What next?


      Volume ###  Ltr  Label        Fs     Type        Size     Status     Info

      ----------  ---  -----------  -----  ----------  -------  ---------  --------

      Volume 0     C   OS           NTFS   Partition    465 GB  Healthy    Boot

      Volume 1     D                NTFS   Partition    450 MB  Healthy

      Volume 2         Image        NTFS   Partition     10 GB  Healthy

      Volume 3         ESP          FAT32  Partition    500 MB  Healthy    System

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  3. Anonymous
    2018-06-03T14:17:18+00:00

    Thank you so much for your kind consideration. We will work with this and see what happens.

    TL

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