Guide: How to Unhide Recovery Partition in Windows

Normally, the recovery partition is hidden by default and cannot be viewed in File Explorer in Windows 11/10/8/7. However, you can hide the recovery partition to show it using DiskPart or a third-party partition manager and see the files it contains.

About recovery partition

The recovery partition is the part of the hard drive that contains the Windows 7/8/8.1/10/11 operating system image file, also known as WinRE. WinRE stands for Windows Recovery Environment and is automatically created when you install the Windows operating system on a GPT disk either pre-installed by your computer manufacturer (eg Dell, Asus, HP, etc.) or using Windows Setup, causing boot problems. can be solved.

In most cases, the recovery partition is hidden by default if it is accidentally deleted or created, and you cannot see the recovery partition in Windows Explorer (File Explorer). At this point, the only way to view the partition is in Disk Management. Just go to: This PC > Go to the Administrative menu, open Computer Management and select Storage > Disk Management.

In certain situations, you may want to make the recovery partition visible. Windows 7/8/10 has two ways to meet your needs. Note that it is not recommended to show the hidden recovery partition if Windows cannot restore the operating system.

Use the DiskPart command to display the recovery partition

You can recover hideen partition in Windows on the main drive or show recovery partition using DiskPart:

Open the command prompt by typing cmd in the Windows search box.

Then type diskpart.

Enter the list disk command to list all the hard drives on your computer.

Type select disk n, where n is the number of the disk where the recovery partition is located.

Enter list partition to view all partitions on the selected MBR/GPT disk.

Type select partition m, where m is the Dell/Asus/HP recovery partition number.

Then type assign: the system will automatically assign the drive letter.

After these commands, you can see the recovery section in Windows Explorer. If you want to hide them, these steps are basically the same as hiding them, the only difference is the last step: type remove letter=e, where e is the drive letter of the recovery partition.

Another easy way to unhide recovery partition

Another reliable way to display the recovery partition is to use AOMEI Partition Assistant, a powerful disk partitioning software for Windows 11, 10, 8, 8.1, 7, Vista, XP, including all 32-bit and 64-bit Windows users.

Fully supported editions. This software includes many advanced disk management functions such as hide/unhide, extend, resize, check and delete partitions, NTFS to FAT32 converter, OS migration to SSD, convert disk between MBR and GPT without data loss, etc.

Below we try to explain in detail how to recover partition in Windows:

Step 1: Download, install and run AOMEI Partition Assistant. In the main window, click on the recovery partition, go to "Advanced" and select "Unhide" under "Partition Operations " on the left, or right-click on the recovery partition and select "Advanced > Unhide" from the drop-down menu.

Step 2: On the next window, click OK to continue.

Step 3: Check the results of the Pending Operations and the changes of recovery partition, then click "Apply" on the toolbar to see the recovery partition and hidden files in Windows 7/8/10/11.

With AOMEI Partition Assistant, you can see that the recovery partition is successfully visible and appears in File Explorer. Note that this partition should not be deleted or formatted to avoid getting stuck in a non-bootable situation. Or you can hide the partition. For server users, AOMEI Partition Assistant Server is more suitable for all advanced functions such as dynamic disk and dynamic disk management, basic and reverse conversion.

Recover data from partition

If you want to recover data from hard drive, you can rely on professional data recovery software like MyRecover. It can be considered a flagship software for the following reasons.

• It provides good coverage of more than 200 types including Word, Excel, PPT, Photo, Video, Audio, Email, Web Page, Compressed file.
• You can judge the content of deleted files based on the original file name.
• Recover deleted/lost files from hard drives, SSDs, USB flash drives and other storage devices.
• Save original format of deleted/lost data.
• Automatically perform quick scan and deep scan to detect all deleted and other missing files.
• Applies to other data loss scenarios such as deletion, hard disk formatting, etc.
• Supports NTFS, FAT32, exFAT and ReFS on Windows 11, 10, 8, 7 and Windows Server.

After data loss, you should stop using your computer as soon as possible. Additionally, you should not add new data to the computer, as any write operation will overwrite the deleted/lost files. Follow the steps below to recover data from the disk.

Step 1. Install and launch MyRecover on your computer.

Step 2. Select the partition that contains the necessary files before data loss, hover over the disk and click "Scan".

Step 3. After the automatic scan, all the deleted files and other missing files of your selected partition will be displayed.

Step 4. Review the scan results and select the recoverable files you want to recover. Then click "Recover x Files" button and save these recovered files to new location.

Frequently Asked Questions