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

Anonymous

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.

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Anonymous

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

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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197 additional answers

Anonymous

2018-05-06T20:23:31+00:00

Yes, the 11GB partition was from the original OEM configuration. It holds certain images for doing a factory reset.

Of my three systems with the same configuration, the only one which did not jump to the larger partition is one which has an 852 MB Recovery Tools partition. Maybe that one was large enough so it did not need to move to or create a larger partition.

It also cleaned out the 450 Recovery Tools partition, no folders or files left.

The reagentc /info command will give you the path to the winre.wim

\?\GLOBALROOT\device\harddisk0\partition6\Recovery\WindowsRE
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Anonymous

2018-05-06T19:41:56+00:00

I don't know about 11 GB. That sounds like a manufacturer's OEM recovery partition. I had one of 8 GB that was deleted with a clean install of 1703. And it created a 450 MB recovery partition at the front of the HDD. Then, an upgrade to 1709 deleted the WinRE.wim that was in it, & created a new 790 MB recovery partition at the end of the drive with its own WinRE.wim inside. Now the upgrade to 1803 has changed both of those to type OEM. But it gave me no new letters, & Shift+Restart does boot to it. I'm glad it didn't create a new recovery partition - but has just taken over the 1709 one for its own use, judging by the dates inside.

Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.17134.1]

(c) 2018 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\WINDOWS\system32>DIR R:\ /a /s    << I put my own letter on it.

Volume in drive R has no label.

Volume Serial Number is 9AB3-01BA

Directory of R:\

05/01/2018 02:59 AM    <DIR>          Recovery

05/06/2018 02:58 PM    <DIR>          System Volume Information

               0 File(s)              0 bytes

Directory of R:\Recovery

05/01/2018 02:59 AM    <DIR>          .

05/01/2018 02:59 AM    <DIR>          ..

05/06/2018 02:03 PM    <DIR>          Logs

05/06/2018 06:00 PM    <DIR>          WindowsRE

               0 File(s)              0 bytes

Directory of R:\Recovery\Logs

05/06/2018 02:03 PM    <DIR>          .

05/06/2018 02:03 PM    <DIR>          ..

05/06/2018 06:00 PM             1,355 Reload.xml

               1 File(s)          1,355 bytes

Directory of R:\Recovery\WindowsRE

05/06/2018 06:00 PM    <DIR>          .

05/06/2018 06:00 PM    <DIR>          ..

04/11/2018 07:34 PM         3,170,304 boot.sdi

05/06/2018 06:00 PM             1,110 ReAgent.xml

05/01/2018 02:56 AM       443,658,893 Winre.wim    << That's the date of the upgrade

               3 File(s)    446,830,307 bytes

Total Files Listed:

               4 File(s)    446,831,662 bytes

              10 Dir(s)     362,561,536 bytes free

C:\WINDOWS\system32>

Here is the 1703 recovery partition. There is no WinRE.wim inside, & the dates are old...

C:\WINDOWS\system32>DIR X: /a /s

Volume in drive X is Recovery

Volume Serial Number is DECF-96B8

Directory of X:\

10/18/2017 08:24 AM    <DIR>          Recovery

05/06/2018 03:39 PM    <DIR>          System Volume Information

               0 File(s)              0 bytes

Directory of X:\Recovery

10/18/2017 08:24 AM    <DIR>          .

10/18/2017 08:24 AM    <DIR>          ..

09/04/2017 04:27 AM    <DIR>          Logs

               0 File(s)              0 bytes

Directory of X:\Recovery\Logs

09/04/2017 04:27 AM    <DIR>          .

09/04/2017 04:27 AM    <DIR>          ..

09/04/2017 08:24 AM             1,316 Reload.xml

               1 File(s)          1,316 bytes

Total Files Listed:

               1 File(s)          1,316 bytes

               7 Dir(s)     453,353,472 bytes free

C:\WINDOWS\system32>
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Anonymous

2018-05-05T17:18:14+00:00

I used this tool to remove the drive letter. https://www.partitionwizard.com/free-partition-manager.html
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