Unable to hide a system partition in windows 10 Build 19042.928

Question

Unable to hide a system partition in windows 10 Build 19042.928

Mohamed Al Gohary 1

A partition just appeared out of nowhere, the partition's name is "SYSTEM_DRV (F:)" and it is 260MB.
Something that might be related to the issue is that I had a USB stick (with the same letter F) fail just before this happened, and I changed the USB's letter to "G" instead, then this happened.
I did some research, I tried first to remove the letter from disk management, but was unable to, then I tried the "diskpart" method and it got me nowhere. All the fixes I could find online were for partitions that the system recognized it had a letter attached to it, which is not the same as my case, here is a screenshot

Is there any fix for this issue?

cheong00 3,486 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator

2021-04-21T06:38:18.297+00:00

Generally the first advice is to reboot. In most of the time this will have those "phantom drive letters" removed by system.
Mohamed Al Gohary 1 Reputation point

2021-04-21T12:59:21.577+00:00

I actually didn't think of restarting, but after I did, the drive in question changed letters from F to H but was still visible. But I tried to use diskpart to remove the letter this time, and it worked. Your advice didn't directly solve the problem, but got me closer to actually solving it. So, thank you.
Darrell Gorter 2,731 Reputation points

2021-04-21T20:28:23.64+00:00

Hello,
Can you post a screenshot of DiskMangement of your disks?
Mohamed Al Gohary 1 Reputation point

2021-04-21T22:18:18.26+00:00

Here is the screenshot. For some reason I'm not able to embed it in the comment here

https://i.postimg.cc/zv3mrDG9/Untitled.png

After I restarted as per @cheong00 advice, I was able to remove the letter of the drive from diskpart. It goes away instantly, but when I restart my laptop, it comes back again. I tried to restart 3 times till now, and every time I use diskpart to remove the letter. But it comes back every time.
cheong00 3,486 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator

2021-04-22T03:03:49.79+00:00

Maybe you can show a dump of "bcdedit" command (need to be "Run as Administrator") and see if you can get some hint?
Docs 15,761 Reputation points

2021-04-22T05:51:31.85+00:00

All 3 steps were diagnostic.

They were / are to view information about disks, volumes, and partitions.

The comment from Cheong00 mislead and scared you.

The comments that Cheong00 posted were incorrect and inappropriate.

Cheong00 did not know how to read / interpret the commands.

None of the commands can modify disks, volumes, or partitions.

Again all commands were diagnostic.
cheong00 3,486 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator

2021-04-22T07:07:19.547+00:00

Yes. My apologies for misread your "det par" as "del par". It's my bad for not confirming "what I read is really what I read" before posting that.

Really sorry for accusing you try to do something with possibly malicious intention.
Jenny Feng 14,241 Reputation points

2021-04-23T08:28:14.683+00:00

Hi,

Just checking in to see if the information provided was helpful.

If the reply helped you, please remember to accept as answer.
If no, please reply and tell us the current situation in order to provide further help.
Darrell Gorter 2,731 Reputation points

2021-04-23T17:13:02.197+00:00

Hmm,
Don't see anything in the screenshot that looks unusual.
Where are you seeing the drive appear? Is it in file explorer?

Can you export some data from the registry?
Open Regedit, go down to
HKLM\System\Mounteddevices:
Choose File, then export, export as a txt file.
Post the results
\Dosdevices(driveletter:) is where the drive is mapped to the volume

3 answers

Your answer

cheong00 3,486 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator

2021-04-21T06:38:18.297+00:00

Generally the first advice is to reboot. In most of the time this will have those "phantom drive letters" removed by system.
Mohamed Al Gohary 1 Reputation point

2021-04-21T12:59:21.577+00:00

I actually didn't think of restarting, but after I did, the drive in question changed letters from F to H but was still visible. But I tried to use diskpart to remove the letter this time, and it worked. Your advice didn't directly solve the problem, but got me closer to actually solving it. So, thank you.
Darrell Gorter 2,731 Reputation points

2021-04-21T20:28:23.64+00:00

Hello,
Can you post a screenshot of DiskMangement of your disks?
Mohamed Al Gohary 1 Reputation point

2021-04-21T22:18:18.26+00:00

Here is the screenshot. For some reason I'm not able to embed it in the comment here

https://i.postimg.cc/zv3mrDG9/Untitled.png

After I restarted as per @cheong00 advice, I was able to remove the letter of the drive from diskpart. It goes away instantly, but when I restart my laptop, it comes back again. I tried to restart 3 times till now, and every time I use diskpart to remove the letter. But it comes back every time.
cheong00 3,486 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator

2021-04-22T03:03:49.79+00:00

Maybe you can show a dump of "bcdedit" command (need to be "Run as Administrator") and see if you can get some hint?
Docs 15,761 Reputation points

2021-04-22T05:51:31.85+00:00

All 3 steps were diagnostic.

They were / are to view information about disks, volumes, and partitions.

The comment from Cheong00 mislead and scared you.

The comments that Cheong00 posted were incorrect and inappropriate.

Cheong00 did not know how to read / interpret the commands.

None of the commands can modify disks, volumes, or partitions.

Again all commands were diagnostic.
cheong00 3,486 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator

2021-04-22T07:07:19.547+00:00

Yes. My apologies for misread your "det par" as "del par". It's my bad for not confirming "what I read is really what I read" before posting that.

Really sorry for accusing you try to do something with possibly malicious intention.
Jenny Feng 14,241 Reputation points

2021-04-23T08:28:14.683+00:00

Hi,

Just checking in to see if the information provided was helpful.

If the reply helped you, please remember to accept as answer.
If no, please reply and tell us the current situation in order to provide further help.
Darrell Gorter 2,731 Reputation points

2021-04-23T17:13:02.197+00:00

Hmm,
Don't see anything in the screenshot that looks unusual.
Where are you seeing the drive appear? Is it in file explorer?

Can you export some data from the registry?
Open Regedit, go down to
HKLM\System\Mounteddevices:
Choose File, then export, export as a txt file.
Post the results
\Dosdevices(driveletter:) is where the drive is mapped to the volume

Answer 1

Docs 15,761

Open disk management > by default some columns are compressed > widen each Status and Volume > make sure the contents within the parenthesis are in full view and that none of the characters are cutoff > view disk 0 > widen this row as needed so that all of the characters are in full view > post an image into the thread
https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/2503-disk-management-how-post-screenshot.html

Download and install Minitool Partition Wizard > click launch > post an image of the results into this thread
https://download.cnet.com/MiniTool-Partition-Wizard-Free-Edition/3000-2094_4-10962200.html
https://www.partitionwizard.com/partitionmagic/portable-partition-magic.html

Open administrative command prompt and copy and paste: (all at one time)

diskpart
lis dis
lis vol
sel dis 0
det dis
lis par
sel par 1
det par
sel par 2
det par
sel par 3
det par
sel par 4
det par
sel par 5
det par
sel par 6
det par
sel dis 1
det dis
lis par
sel par 1
det par
sel par 2
det par
sel par 3
det par
sel par 4
det par
sel par 5
det par
sel par 6
det par
sel dis 2
det dis
lis par

When these have completed > right click on the top bar or title bar of the administrative command prompt box > left click on edit then select all > right click on the top bar again > left click on edit then copy > paste into the thread

cheong00 3,486 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator

2021-04-21T06:53:13.57+00:00

EDIT: Please ignore this message. I'm misreading the command @Docs had posted.

======

Don't!

What do you want to suggest the asker delete all partitions when he only want to remove phantom drive letter without lost of data?
Mohamed Al Gohary 1 Reputation point

2021-04-21T12:55:25.75+00:00

Thanks for the heads up, I would've done my research if I was going to run any command, but maybe I would've fallen for it and deleted all partitions.
Darrell Gorter 2,731 Reputation points

2021-04-21T20:29:52.713+00:00

Hello,
Is he asking for deleting or is he asking for detail on the disks?
Diskpart has a detail option which supplies properties of the Disk, Partition, or volume.
cheong00 3,486 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator

2021-04-22T03:07:06.657+00:00

Oops, my apologies for wrongly claim the purpose of your script because I see them as another command. :(

Answer 2

Mohamed Al Gohary 1

No problem @cheong00 , If I were to run the commands, I would've learned more about them first and knew what they did exactly.
Thanks for all the help @Docs @cheong00 @Darrell Gorter @Jenny Feng

I resolved the issue on my own as follows:

Removed the letter from problem drive (with Diskpart)
Restarted Windows (problem drive returned with same letter)
Removed the letter again (With Diskpart)
Hid the partition with an external program (Minitool partition wizard) and it didn't come back after several restarts.

So what's the problem with diskpart not being able to produce the same effect that Minitool did?

Jenny Feng 14,241 Reputation points

2021-04-27T02:34:17.293+00:00

@Mohamed Al Gohary
Hi,
Good to hear that you have solved this issue by yourself. In addition, thanks for sharing your solution in the forum.
Please remember to accept as answer, it will be helpful to other members who have same questions.

Answer 3

Docs 15,761

If the command results had been run there would be more information.
It's likely that if it were to reoccur diskpart would fix the problem.

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Unable to hide a system partition in windows 10 Build 19042.928

3 answers

Your answer