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. 

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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
    2018-06-04T22:16:11+00:00

    If I look in C:\Windows\System 32\Recovery\ I do find an entry WinRe.wim, but I am unable to open that entry. I get "Can't reach this page".

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  2. Anonymous
    2018-06-04T21:42:53+00:00

    I think that I found the correct Recycle Bin for the new partition Local Disk E:.. However,  evidently the default Windows construct is to reserve 10% of the total Disk space for the Recycle Bin. Since WinRe.wim took up most of the space on the new partition  Local Disk E:, there was no chance of it holding that program when deleted.

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  3. Anonymous
    2018-06-04T21:38:13+00:00

    I followed your instructions as to what to do to eliminate the drive letter associated with the volume number and it worked. Thanks for this information. The popup notice that it was full was occurring frequently, and it was becoming quite irritating to say the least. Hope doing this has not caused any further problems down line. Thanks again Tiero!

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