Is it OK to hide the RECOVERY partition on an HP HDX 16t?

[Mark F]

I'm in the process of setting up my HP HDX 16t which is
now running Windows Vista 64-bit and which I will soon upgrade to
Windows 7.

I noticed that the RECOVERY partition is visible and is D:.

All of the other machines that I have purchased with software
installed and which have diagnostic or recovery partitions (which may
not be the same partition) have come from the manufacturer with the
diagnostic and/or recovery partitions hidden.

I have several questions:
. is it OK to "hide" the RECOVERY partition? (I would do
this by using Computer Management > Storage > Disk Management,
selecting the RECOVERY partition, right clicking on the partition,
selecting "Change Drive Letter and Paths...", then clicking on
the "Remove" button.)
. My other 6 machines all of have "invisible" manufacturer's
partitions, so I use "D:" for my data files. If it isn't
OK to make the RECOVERY partition invisible under normal
use, is it OK to change the letter from D: to another letter?
. If it isn't OK to make the RECOVERY partition invisible under
normal use, how can I stop the partition from accidentally
getting written to? I want to protect both from casual errors
on the part of Administrative users and by Windows itself,
which writes to all "visible" partitions.

Thank you.