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Previous hidden partition now drive E: after restore using True Image 2014

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I am running Acronis TI 2014 on a Dell Windows XP Pro SP3 laptop. Recently I had to install a new hard drive. I booted with the Acronis Recovery Disk I had created and restored all the partitions. Everything worked fine except a previously hidden partition (125MB FAT partition) is now showing as drive E: and is no longer hidden. This partition contains Dell files.

Besides drive C: (NTFS System partition) there is also a 47MB (hidden FAT EISA Configuration partition) and a 3.39GB (hidden Unknown Partition).

Can I safely make the drive E: partition hidden and, if so, what utility can I use to do this?

I appreciate any assistance with this issue.

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Al:

First, an explanation of what occurred. When you installed a new hard drive and restored to it, the disk signatures differed between the old disk and the new disk. Windows uses the disk signature internally to identify disks and partitions and these assignments are stored in the registry. When you first booted the PC with the new disk, Windows couldn't find the partitions that were previously assigned, so it started assigning drive letters to what it identified as new partitions. As a result, your 125 MB partition got a drive letter.

Now that Windows has completed its drive letter assignments, you are free to change them to whatever you want. Use Disk Management console to remove the drive letter E: from the 125 MB FAT partition. Just don't change the letter assigned to the system partition, C:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/307844

Thank you for your reply. Your solution should do the trick, but I don't want to waste a drive letter on this partition since I don't use the contents of the partition...I have a number of network connections and external drives that use many of the remaining drive letters available. I assume I can just remove the drive letter using the Disk Management console without causing any problems. Would this work ok or am I asking for trouble doing it this way?

Thanks again for the assistance.

Al:

Yes, that's exactly what I was suggesting that you do. Just remove the drive letter. The article that I referenced had instructions for assigning, changing, and removing drive letters.