Does Dell Assign Drive Letters to Recovery Partitions

What version of Dell Backup and Recovery is installed, and did DBaR get updated recently?

Once drive letters are assigned by Windows, they're there until you tell Windows to remove the drive letters in the Disk Management widget.

But don't un-assign them just yet. Lets see what / anything my Dell tech contacts have to say first.

ROHE,

Sorry, I must have missed your advice to check hidden files / folders.

It makes no difference whether the "Hidden Items" box in File Explorer window is checked or not.  These two partitions (with drive letters attached) are visible as drives.  Other "Hidden Items" are not shown when the box is unchecked.

I uninstalled DBaR and rebooted but that did not change anything.  The 2 partitions still display as previously described.  Perhaps the drive letters are assigned and remain there even with DBaR uninstalled (assuming it is the culprit).

Yes, I've found other posts on various forums regarding this issue.  For me. it's not a big issue but puzzling why partitions that should be hidden are showing up with drive letters attached.

Thanks for helping.

Dave...

DBaR may be updating in the background.

The partitions are supposed to be hidden, and that's why I asked if you'd changed the option to view hidden files/folders. Look for that Windows settings option and see if the "show hidden" box is checked and uncheck, if necessary.

I pinged my Dell tech contacts about this thread because we've discussed visibility of the restore partitions before...

To add a bit, these two partitions do not show as disk drives in Drive Management.  They show as partitions (as they should) on Disk 0 (no drive letters shown with them there). 

They do show up as volumes 3 & 4 (X & Y) in Diskpart. > list volumes.  Not sure if this helps but thought I'd throw it in the soup.

Have not attempted any changes as per your advice.

Ok.  Let me know what they say and thanks aging for your help.  Right now, DBaR is uninstalled and the partitions/drive letters remain visible.

Dave...

Here's a screenshot.

CAPAIR45,

Our developement team is aware of the issue and has done some work on it. Should be mostly addressed in the next update to v1.8.x.x which will be pushed anytime.  It's not a background process running or anything like that.  Just some OS working that act funny under certain circumstances.  Even if you are not using Dell Backup and Recovery, you should take the next update to help address this if it concerns you.

Thanks,

Thanks for the update, David.

Appreciate the information!

David,

Any updates on a specific fix? I've just rebuilt my e6420 and the recovery partition is showing up as the E: drive. Formerly E: was assigned to my USB drive, which is now showing up as F. I have several programs pointing to this drive for files and don't want to have to change all these settings as I restore/rebuild.

Thanks,

Peter

Nothing new as of yet.  The drives are still showing as previously described.  I have Windows Updates set to install automatically and the last update was successfully completed 2 days ago.

This is still happening in certain circumstances. 

You can simply use storage management to remove or change the drive letter for the RP and re-assign the drive letter for your USB drive.

The application does not care if the RP has a drive letter or not.

Thanks,

The option to change the drive letter does not exist. When I right-click I only see the Help option.  Screen shot attached. 

Messing with a recovery partition looks dicey. I may live with what I've got if there is not an easy, trustable fix.