We create a hidden recovery partition ourselves. How to hide a disk partition in Windows without installing programs How to hide the recovery partition on a laptop

So, you have finished installing the operating system, drivers, updates and programs, checked its performance and stability, were satisfied with the result obtained and want to be able to “roll back” to this system state in case of unforeseen circumstances. Windows 7 is equipped with fairly powerful backup tools that can reduce the time it takes to restore the system. Those who have bought new computers with Windows 7 pre-installed are familiar with the restore function, after which the operating system, and sometimes the contents of the entire hard drive, is returned to its factory state. In this case, user files located on the hard drive may be lost.
If you have an installation disk with the operating system, you are spared from such losses (How to reinstall Windows 7, saving settings and installed programs), but subsequent installation of drivers and updates is inevitable. I offer you a method that will significantly reduce the time spent setting up the system after reinstallation; moreover, it does not require an installation disk. The article uses materials from Vadim Sterkin’s blog and a video report by Valery Volobuev Setting up the Windows Recovery Environment in Windows 7. The algorithm described below does not require specific knowledge and is relatively easy to implement for a home user. We will perform the task in the following order:

• prepare a partition for the future recovery partition;
• create a system image in the Windows RE environment;
• configure the recovery environment;
• Let's reinstall and reconfigure the recovery environment.

Preparing the recovery partition

First of all, we need to create a partition on which we will subsequently place the operating system image file, as well as the file for deploying the recovery environment. There are many ways to perform this operation, I will use standard tools: Disk Management and the command line utility DISKPART. You can read about this in the article “Disk Management in Windows Vista and Windows 7”. We will determine the partition size based on the current occupancy of the partition with the operating system and the availability of free space. For example, if the system takes up about 20 gigabytes, the optimal size would be from 5 to 10 gigabytes. In my example, the section D:\ was first compressed

Figure 1 – compression of partition D:\

Then in the resulting unmarked area

Figure 2 – unallocated disk space after compression

Using the utility DISKPART a primary partition was created, formatted, and a label was assigned to it Recovery and letter R. (DISKPART was used due to the fact that using Disk Management, the fourth partition created will be an additional one. You can experiment with placing the recovery partition on an additional partition.) Run sequentially:
::Start DISKPART
Diskpart

Sel disk 0
::Creating a primary partition on the entire unallocated area of ​​the disk. If necessary, specify the partition number using the LIST PART command
Create partition primary
::Quick formatting of the created partition and assigning the “Recovery” label to it
Format LABEL=”Recovery” quick
::Assigning the letter R to a section:
Assign letter=R
::Stopping DISKPART
Exit

Figure 3 – work in DISKPART

Here and in what follows, we will work in a command line launched with administrator rights. Before moving on to capturing an operating system image, create a R:\ folder WinRE for storing it.

Figure 4 – WinRE folder at the root of the future recovery partition.

Creating an operating system image

First of all, study the article “Creating a customized operating system image”. It describes the principles and tools, namely the utility imagex.exe, part of the Windows AIK. Depending on the bitness of the system, you must use the appropriate version of this utility. I have posted both versions of them on the section D:\ in folder WAIKTools.

Figure 5 – WAIK Tools folder on a non-system partition

I also strongly recommend Vadim Sterkin’s article for review and guidance: “How to quickly determine drive letters in the recovery environment or Windows PE.” This knowledge will help us not to make mistakes in the command syntax for capturing an operating system image. Restart your computer and enter the recovery environment (to do this, press F8 after turning on your computer and select "Troubleshoot your computer" from the advanced boot options menu).

After downloading, launch the command line and text editor: notepad Using the “Open” menu (Ctrl + O) determine the partition letters. In my example, as can be seen from Figure 7, the system section received the letter D:\ , utility imagex.exe is in the folder E:\WAIKTools\ , and the section Recovery– letter F:\ .

Figure 7 – partition letters in the WindowsRE environment

One note: since we will not need to transfer the customized image to another computer, we will use the command given in the “Boot to Windows PE and save the image using the ImageX utility” section of the above article.
Run the command:

"E:\WAIK Tools\amd64\imagex.exe" /capture D: F:\WinRE\install.wim "Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 Custom"

Necessary clarifications:

• "E:\WAIK Tools\amd64\imagex.exe" - Path to the imagex.exe utility. Quotes are used to avoid problems with spaces in the folder name.
• /capture D: - The key indicates the capture of the system image located on the D: partition (as seen in WindowsRE).
• F:\WinRE\install.wim "Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 Custom" - Saving the captured image to the install.wim file (this is important, since in this case only this name is valid) in the F:\WinRE folder. A file comment is specified, and the default compression method is used (compress maximum).

Figure 8 - creating an operating system image in the Windows RE environment

Quit WindowsRE and reboot. Let's move on to the final stage of creating a recovery partition.

Setting up the recovery environment.

In addition to the operating system image file, I decided to place a file on the new partition that would boot into the recovery environment. With this arrangement, it will not depend on the partition with the operating system. As you know, the recovery environment is deployed from an image file WinRE.wim located in the folder Recovery at the root of the system partition. Access to this folder is blocked through Windows Explorer. The file attribute is hidden system. How to place the file in the location we choose?
Let's use command line utilities. First, disable the recovery environment. Please note that Any actions with the recovery environment must be preceded by disabling it! To do this, on the command line run

Reagentс /disable

After running this command the file WinRE.wim will move to the folder c:\Windows\System32\Recovery. From it we will copy the file to the folder R:\WinRE.
Use the command xcopy with key / h:

xcopy /h c:\Windows\System32\Recovery\winre.wim r:\WinRE

Figure 9 – copying the WinRE.wim file

And finally, a few final chords:

/ path ) to the system image file located in the folder specified by the key/ target
Reagentc /setosimage /path R:\WinRE /target c:\Windows
::Set custom path (key/ path ) to the system recovery environment deployment file located in the folder specified by the key/ target
Reagentc /setreimage /path R:\WinRE /target c:\Windows
::Enabling the recovery environment
Reagentc /enable
::Checking recovery environment settings
Reagentc/info

As can be seen from Figure 10, the setup was successful. Do not close the window - the command line will still be needed.

Figure 10 – setting up a custom recovery environment.

It will be interesting to see what changes have taken place in the section Recovery. To do this, enable the display of hidden and system files.

Figure 11 – changing the contents of the R section.

As you can see, the file WinRE.wim in folder WinRE no, but a folder appeared Recovery at the root of the section. Believe me, the file is now in it. I will not dwell on the structure of the Recovery folder - if you wish, you can study its contents, and also compare with the BCD parameters (using the command bcdedit /enum all). All that remains is to protect the section from accidental impact from users. To do this, you need to hide it from Explorer and exclude the ability to work with it in Disk Management. The utility will help us with this again Diskpart. On the command line, run sequentially (the disk and partition numbers correspond to the configuration given in the article):

::Start DISKPART
Diskpart
::Disk selection. If there are several of them, then the number of the required disk is determined by the LIST DISK command
Sel disk 0
::Selecting a section. If necessary, specify the partition number using the LIST PART command
Sel part 4
::Deleting a letter - the partition will be hidden in Windows Explorer
Remove
::Setting the section IDID=27.This ID is set specifically for recovery partitions. It becomes impossible to work with such a partition in Disk Management, which provides additional protection for it
Set id=27

Figure 12 - working with the recovery partition in DISKPART

Changes that have occurred in the system

Firstly, the partition is not visible in Windows Explorer, and it does not have a context menu in Disk Management.

Figure 13 – Explorer and Disk Management Manager.

Secondly, in the Advanced Recovery Methods window in the description of reinstalling Windows, there is no requirement to have an installation disk.

Figure 14 – Windows advanced recovery methods menu.

Thirdly, the recovery environment menu has changed:

Figure 15 – additional menu item in Windows recovery options in the recovery environment

This could have been the end of it. But there is a need to dwell on several nuances that arise after reinstalling the system in this manner. I will reinstall the system from the recovery environment.

Setting up a recovery environment after reinstalling the system

For the purity of the experiment, I will format the partition with the system and the partition with the download files. Moreover, I strongly recommend formatting the “System Reserved” section to avoid confusion with loading in the future.

Figure 16 – formatting partitions in the WindowsRE environment.

No user participation is required during the reinstallation process. You will receive a system identical to the one you had at the time you took the image.

Figure 17 – beginning of system reinstallation.

The only thing is that after reinstalling you need to make a few changes:

1. Due to a complete rebuild of the BCD, the recovery environment must be reconfigured.
2. hide section in explorer Recovery.

Disable the recovery environment with the command

Reagentc /disable

Turn on display of hidden and system files, open the folder WinRE on the section R:\ and make sure the file exists Winre.wim. If necessary, copy it from the folder Windows\System32\Recovery or from a folder R:\Recovery\xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx. After that delete the folder Recovery on the section R:\ .

Figure 18

Then enable the recovery environment: Reagentc /enable Make sure the settings are correct (note that the name of the folder where the WinRE.wim file is located in the Recovery folder is different. Therefore, before connecting the recovery environment, you can safely delete the old one.):

Reagentc/info

Figure 19 – connecting the recovery environment after reinstallation.

Remove the letter from the partition R:\

Diskpart
Sel disk 0
Sel part 4
Remove
Exit

Your computer is ready for a fresh reinstallation. One final note. While performing numerous reinstallations while preparing this article, I noticed the appearance of an incomprehensible folder in the list of available drives on the “System Protection” tab. This may be due to the missing folder in the system image SystemVolumeInformation or changing section IDs.

Figure 20 – phantom partition in the list of available disks on the “System Protection” tab.

To get rid of the strange folder, disable system protection on this phantom partition and enable it on the partition with the current system.

Conclusion

There are probably easier ways to make reservations, especially using different programs. I don’t pretend that you will definitely use the method described above, but I think it’s convenient and practical. Of course, the system will be updated over time. To keep the image up to date, periodically rewrite the file in Windows RE Install.wim.

AHTUNG!!! ANON DON'T BE SURPRISED THAT YOU DON'T FIND P.4 (POINT FOUR) IN OUR ARTICLES - WE DON'T WRITE IT ON FUNDAMENTAL, BUT WE'RE SUPSTITIVE...

It sometimes happens that N number of devices with Win7 fall into your hands. And they need to have a recovery partition.
Initially, many laptops/netbooks with an OS pre-installed from the store have such partitions, and there is even special software from the manufacturer that performs backup and rollback by pressing just one functional “hot key”.
However, it is not uncommon to have to “collectively farm” and make a similar decision in the manner described below. Because If you have the same installation flash drive, the implementation has a right to life.

As you know, it is advisable to create such partitions after installing the operating system and installing all the drivers necessary for its operation, as well as the necessary software.
So, for the sake of understanding and at least some systematization of anon’s actions, let’s break everything down point by point:
1. To create the treasured recovery partition, you need to create a separate partition on your hard drive. Even the forgotten partition-magic, or the popular Acronis, is suitable for this. Taking into account the typicality of the situation that you can guess, we will do this using standard Wi(shi)ndows tools. So, through the workbench, go to the “Management” menu (to do this, right-click (right mouse button) on the “Computer” icon - then “Management”). Next, go to “Disk Management”. Again, right-click on the hard drive that we want to use for partitioning to store our image, click “Shrink Volume”.

2. Pay attention to the “Size of compressed space (MB)” field; here you need to indicate the size of the future partition for recovery. Its volume should be calculated from the current occupied OS space on your OS partition. Those. If now “Winda” takes up, for example, 15 GB, then don’t be a redneck, set aside about 16 GB for it in recovery. In the example, the size is approximately 20GB, because someone got greedy (it happens). Next, click “Compress”.

3. Right-click on the newly created partition and select “Create simple volume”.

5. Continuing the setup wizard, click “Next” as often as almost always.

6. You can assign any letter, but we’ll write “R”, because it’s recovery, damn. And enter the same name for the volume label.

7. Done!

8. Thus, the recovery partition was created on the hard drive, now you need to make a system image. Go to “Start” - “Control Panel” - “System Backup and Restore”

9. Click on “Create a system image”

10. Select our partition that we prepared for the recovery image in the window that opens.

11. Follow the steps of the wizard and click “Archive”

12. We are waiting for this slow process to complete, or we are going to drink tea/coffee.

13. Once the process is complete, you will be asked to create a recovery disc using DVD-R media. If you want, then go ahead, but in this case there is no point in doing it. Yes, and you can restore it through the same media from which you installed your miracle build by selecting “Recovery” in the process.

A feature of the Windows 7 operating system, as well as a big surprise for users who first installed this system on their computer, was the hidden partition System Reserved(Reserved by the system). In this article I will try to reveal the functions and advantages of this innovation.

Purpose of the hidden section

If Windows 7 is your first operating system, then you may not suspect anything about the existence of this partition. It is not visible in Windows Explorer. Over time, if the main purpose of the computer is not gaming or surfing the Internet, you will reach “Disk Management” and see that in addition to one or two partitions there is little space on the hard drive. It looks like a separate section, but it doesn’t have a letter and the name is unclear. Why then is it needed?

The main purpose of this section is to protect operating system boot files. This partition contains the boot store configuration files (BCD) and the system boot loader (bootmgr file). It is believed that this partition can be used to perform a system recovery (sometimes called the recovery partition). This is not entirely true, since the volume of all files located on the partition System Reserved, does not exceed 30-35 MB, while the volume of recovery files is about 150 MB. Although you can log into the recovery environment using this partition, there is no image of the recovery environment on this partition. It is located in a hidden system folder Recovery on the partition with the operating system

Do not confuse the hidden partition, reserved by the system for boot files, and the recovery partition, created by manufacturers to return the computer to its “factory state”. Such sections have completely different attributes. Moreover, on modern computers (especially laptops) both of these sections are necessarily present.

Automatic partition creation during operating system installation

To be honest, it was a mystery to me why in one case, when installing the system, a hidden partition is created, but in another - not. The answer to the question emerged as a result of experiments.

There are several prerequisites for creating a section:

1. The first and main condition is loading from an external device (DVD, USB), because when running the installation program from Windows, you will not be able to work with hard disk partitions;
2. The total number of main (primary) hard disk partitions before installation should not exceed 3. That is, if before installation the space of your hard drive is already divided into 4 such partitions, in this case a hidden partition of 100 MB in size will not be created, and the download files will be located on the existing active partition. Moreover, this may not be the partition on which the system is installed. The number of logical partitions on an extended one does not matter.
3. The partition into which installation is performed must be the first one (top, in the graphical representation of disk space);
4. The operating system must be installed into an unallocated area of ​​the disk. If the disk is already partitioned, then when choosing a partition to install the system you need not only to format it, but also to create it again, that is, the partition for installation must first be deleted. Accordingly, if you do not want a partition to be created on your hard drive System Reserved, do not delete the existing one;

One point is interesting in this regard. If the system installation partition and the active partition are not the same, the active partition becomes invisible after installation is complete. This happens because the installer first places the Windows 7 boot files on the active partition, and then “unmounts” it - removing the letter. This is why many users since the beta version of Windows 7 (and even now, sometimes it happens), installing the system on an inactive partition, “lost” the partition with the already installed system (with Windows XP, for example). The cause of “invisibility” can be easily corrected by assigning a letter to the active partition in Disk Management.

Advantages and disadvantages

As I already noted, the purpose of the hidden partition is to protect the boot data storage. Since this partition is not connected to the others, operations such as disk space compression do not affect boot files, which avoids compression-related problems such as boot messages "bootmgr is compressed". With certain knowledge and skills, boot restoration is not such a complicated process, but it does take some time. If they are absent, the matter may end with reinstalling the system.

The second advantage is the less labor-intensive process of reinstalling one of the systems if you have several of them on the same computer. You can read about this in the article “Restoring a joint boot of Windows 7 and Windows XP when reinstalling one of them” - section “Option two - the recovery partition has been created”.

Finally, having a hidden section is another type of foolproof protection.” To be honest, the experience of helping users solve problems with the operating system allows us to conclude that problems often arise due to a lack of experience and knowledge, as well as a lack of understanding of many of the processes that ensure the stable operation of the operating system.

A few words can also be said about the shortcomings, although it would be more correct to classify them as inconveniences. They are connected with the fact that when organizing a joint boot with Windows XP, you have to assign and delete the letter of the hidden partition to place the XP boot files on it. But I think the advantages of this section outweigh this disadvantage.

Conclusion

The hidden "System Reserved" section in Windows 7 was another step in the evolution of Windows boot, which underwent significant changes in Windows Vista. Thanks to this section, system booting becomes more reliable and less dependent on user actions.

I express my deep gratitude to Vadim Sterkin for reviewing the article and helping with publication.

Why, in principle, might you need to hide hard drive partitions? Most often, this need appears after Explorer, in addition to the usual C and D drives, displays several more partitions that, in theory, should be hidden.

Typically, such partitions include disks where files are stored to restore the computer to its factory state or the system partition responsible for loading the OS, which is created when installing Windows.

So, these sections are usually hidden not only because they will interfere with users, but also because, in fact, they are not intended for everyday use, and accidental or deliberate changes to them can lead to problems in the operation of the operating system. Also, sometimes sections are hidden in order to hide some important data so that guests of your computer do not accidentally discover them.

So, here are instructions on how to remove or hide hard drive partitions from the “My Computer” window.

Hiding a regular partition in disk settings

Hiding partitions using the disk management utility is one of the easiest and fastest methods.

To get to this utility, you should go to “Management” and open the “Disk Management” section.

In the properties that appear, click the “Delete” button.

After this, the drive will no longer be accessible in Explorer. But the disadvantage of this method is that you can hide regular disks without any problems, but with system disks it’s the same It does not always work.

How to hide system drives in the command line

Ok, let's look at another option that will help us hide not only regular, but also system partitions of the hard drive.

To begin with, we first open a command prompt window with administrator rights.

Now we execute the commands in order, which I will give below, while confirming the execution of each line with the “Enter” key.

1. Diskpart – launches the utility for editing hard disk properties;
2. list volume – shows a list of available partitions on the computer;
3. select volume (specify the partition number) – for example, for me it will be volume 2;
4. remove letter=D – the command hides the section. By the way, in order to return everything back, you will need to write instead of this command assign letter=e ;
5. exit

After finishing working with the command line, the hidden disk should disappear and no longer appear.

How to hide drives in the registry

As usual, in this article, we will not do without a registry. Editing registry settings and values ​​is also one of the ways to hide unnecessary hard drive partitions. Moreover, I want to say that this method works on all versions of Windows OS, and will help hide not only regular partitions, but also system ones.

Using Win+R and the regedit command, .

Using the navigation buttons we get to the section:

Create a new DWORD parameter and give it a name .

In the parameter we created, we indicate the digital value of the letter of the drive to be hidden.

In general, the trick is that if you specify a drive letter as a value, you won’t succeed. It’s just that each letter has its own digital value, which should be entered in the appropriate field.

For example, I want to hide the “D” drive. To do this, I open the “NoDrives” parameter, note that we will use the decimal number system and indicate the number “8” in the value field. If you need to hide several drives, then add up their values ​​and enter the resulting result in the “NoDrives” parameter

After this, the disk should disappear from the explorer. If nothing happens, then to apply the settings you should simply restart the computer.

Hidden hard drive partition using group policies

Group Policy Editor is another place where we can hide our disks or partitions.

In order to get there, launch the “Run” window, let me remind you, this is done using the “Win ​​+ R” keys, and copy or enter the command there .

In the “User Configurations” section, go to the following folders “Administrative Templates”, then to “Windows Components” and finally “Windows Explorer”.

Double click to open the parameter:

Having confirmed the new parameters by clicking on the “OK” button, the disks or partitions you selected should disappear until you decide to return them back.

How to hide a hard drive partition in Windows 10