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With our methods, you can view all hidden drives. However, keep in mind that some drives are hidden for good reason.
How to show all drives in Windows: Using Disk Management
Disk Management is a built-in tool in Windows 7 that provides an overview of all hard disks and partitions, even the hidden ones. To view hidden drives:
- Open Disk Management: Press Windows + R, type diskmgmt.msc, and then press Enter.
- Identify drives: All drives, including hidden ones, are displayed in Disk Management. These often do not have an assigned drive letter.
- Assign drive letters: Right-click the hidden drive and select “Change drive letter and paths”. Then click “Add” and assign a free drive letter.
Using Command Prompt to display the drives
You can also use the command prompt to display hidden drives:
- Open the command prompt: Click Start, type cmd, and then press Enter.
- Using the diskpart tool: Type diskpart and press Enter. Confirm with administrator rights if necessary. Then type list volume to list all volumes, including hidden ones.
- Assign drive letters: Select a volume by entering select volume X (replace X with the volume number). Finally, enter assign letter=Y (replace Y with the desired letter).
Understanding hidden drives in Windows 7
There are several types of hidden drives in Windows 7. These drives are either intentionally hidden to protect users from making inadvertent changes or they are dependent on the system configuration. Hidden drives include:
- System partitions: These partitions contain important files that the operating system needs to start. Windows hides these by default to ensure that they are not accidentally modified.
- Reserved partitions: Such partitions, such as the recovery partition, are created by the manufacturer to facilitate system recovery.
- Manually hidden partitions: Users or administrators can intentionally hide drives by not assigning them a drive letter or hiding them via the registry.
- It may be necessary to view these drives in certain cases, such as troubleshooting or data recovery. However, it is important to exercise caution when making such changes, as unintentional changes to the hidden drives can have serious consequences.
