- The recovery partition should be unlisted from your lettered drives as it contains vital system recovery info (WinRE).
- This problem is caused by malfunctioning drive attributes from an update, a drive clone, or it could be another reason.
- To remove the letter, you’ll need to use the Command Prompt and DiskPart command line tools.
You might be used to Windows swapping the names of your external hard drives and USBs, but what happens when your recovery partition, which should only be used in emergencies, suddenly appears as a writable drive with its very own drive letter?
This article will be your guide to restoring your recovery partition to its intended role.
The Invisible Friend
If you’re suddenly dealing with a recovery partition that seems to be doing something other than its assigned role, you might be wondering what’s happening. The recovery partition is created automatically by Windows and is a way for the operating system to restore itself to a previous working state (or factory settings) in case of emergency. This partition houses the Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE).
It’s a very useful partition to have. As you can see from the above image, it appears at the end of your main drive, behind the EFI partition and the main partition. On a normal drive, your main partition should be the only one with a drive letter assigned.
But what happens when it isn’t?
What to Do When Windows 11 Keeps Assigning a Drive Letter to the Recovery Partition
If your recovery partition suddenly has a drive letter and is showing up in File Explorer, this is most likely a problem of missing hidden attributes. The drive is no longer hidden or unmounted. It might also be that an update or disk clone has altered the metadata of your hard drive. Data on this drive is crucial and shouldn’t be overwritten or deleted. Let’s look at some fixes to this problem.
Remove the Letter via Command Prompt
Command Prompt is a tool with many different uses. Today, we’ll be using it to remove the letter from your recovery partition. Here’s how:
Step 1 . Open the Run dialog (Win + R) and type “cmd.” Press (Ctrl + Shift + Enter) to run as Administrator.
Step 2. The WinRE’s status and location can be checked by typing “reagentc /info” and pressing “Enter.” If the partition location (“Windows RE Location:”) shows a letter instead of a number, you’ll need to fix things.
Step 3. Type “diskpart” to open the DiskPart tool in the Command Prompt.
Step 4. Type “list volume” to see the current list of drives on your machine.
Step 5. If you see your recovery partition listed with a drive letter, type “select volume [number]”.
Step 6. Type “remove letter [letter] to get rid of the partition letter.
If the recovery partition doesn’t show up at the volume level, you’ll need to go deeper and access the partition level:
Step 1. In DiskPart, type “list disk” and press “Enter.”
Step 2. Type “select disk [number]” to choose the disk with the partition.
Step 3. View all partitions by typing “list partition”
Step 4. Look for the partition labeled “recovery” under “Type” and type “remove letter [letter]” if there’s a drive letter.
Hide the Drive
If you keep seeing the recovery partition popping up, then you should hide it to prevent files from being overwritten. Here’s how to hide it using Command Prompt:
Step 1. Type “diskpart” into the Command Prompt to begin the tool.
Step 2. Select the partition (see above) and then type “set id=de94bba4-06d1-4d40-a16a-bfd50179d6ac override” to remind the partition of its proper identity.
Step 3. Type “gpt attributes=0x8000000000000001” to set the recovery partition to hidden and read-only.
Step 4. Your partition should now be unlisted from File Explorer.
Unmount the Drive
You can also hide the drive by unmounting it in the Command Prompt. Here’s how:
Step 1. Open the Command Prompt, type “mountvol [driveletter]: /d” and press “Enter.”
Step 2. Check that the drive is no longer showing in File Explorer.
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- In most cases, running the printer troubleshooter or configuring the “Print Spooler Service” should resolve the error.
- Deleting old printer devices and print spooler files can also help fix the issue.
- If nothing works, you may need to delete corrupted print spooler registry entries.
Fix 1: Run Printer Troubleshooter
Windows comes with a dedicated printer troubleshooter that can automatically diagnose and fix any printing issues on your PC. It checks all of your printer configurations and corrects any inconsistencies. Here’s how to run it.
Step 1: Press the Windows key + I to launch the Settings app and head to System > Troubleshoot .
Step 2: Go to Other troubleshooters .
Step 3: Click the Run button next to Printer to begin troubleshooting.
From there, follow the on-screen prompts to finish the troubleshooting process.
Fix 2: Check Print Spooler Service
If the Windows troubleshooter fails to identify any issues, you can check the Print Spooler service on Windows to see if it is properly configured. Here’s how.
Step 1: Press the Windows key + R to open the Run dialog. Type services.msc in the box next to the Open field and press Enter .
Step 2: In the Services window, scroll down to locate Print Spooler . Right-click on it and select Properties .
Step 3: Set the Startup type to Automatic from the drop-down, if it isn’t set already.
Step 4: On the Recovery tab, use the drop-down menus next to First failure, Second failure, and Subsequent failures to select Restart the Service . Then, click on Apply followed by OK .
Restart your PC and check if the print spooler stops again.
Fix 3: Remove Old Printers
Sometimes, the print spooler service may also stop working if several printers are connected to your PC. You can try deleting some of your old printer devices to see if that helps.
Step 1: Click on the search icon on the taskbar, type in printers & scanners and press Enter .
Step 2: Select the printer you want to remove.
Step 3: Click on the Remove button in the top right corner. Repeat this process to remove unwanted printers and try using the printing services again.
Fix 4: Delete Old Print Spooler Files
Existing print spooler cache data can also interfere with the service and cause it to crash repeatedly when corrupted. In that case, you can delete those old print spooler files to fix the issue.
Step 1: Press the Windows key + S to open Windows Search. Type services in the box and select the first result that appears.
Step 2: Right-click on Print Spooler and select Stop .
Step 3: Press the Windows key + E to launch File Explorer on your PC and navigate to the following folder:
C:\Windows\System32\spool\PRINTERS
Step 4: Select all folders and click on the trash icon at the top to delete them.
Restart your PC after you delete the files. The print spooler service should start automatically upon reboot.
Fix 5: Update Printer Drivers
Issues with your current printer drivers can also cause the print spooler to stop abruptly. If the printer drivers on your PC are outdated or corrupted, then updating them should help more often than not.
To update printer drivers, download the most recent drivers from the respective manufacturer’s website. Then, open the downloaded file to begin the installation.
Fix 6: Delete Print Spooler Registry Keys
If none of the above solutions work, you can try deleting a few registry keys associated with the print spooler. Here’s how:
Step 1: Press the Windows key + R to launch the Run dialog box. Type regedit in the box and press Enter .
Step 2: Paste the following path in the address bar at the top to navigate to Print Processors:
Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print\Environments\Windows x64\Print Processors
If you’re using a 32-bit version of Windows, use the following path:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print\Environments\Windows NT x86\Print Processors
Step 3: Delete all keys inside Print Processors except winprint . To delete a key, right-click on it and select Delete . Click on Yes on the prompt.
