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How to Hide a Partition/DriveGot incriminatory data? Hide it! |
By Dragos Jijau, Software News Editor
9th of January 2007, 15:08 GMT
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Many users want their data to be unavailable to any other person that has access to the same computer. To prevent accessing personal data there are so many ways: simply hide the files and folders, encrypt data, use password protected accounts or move data on a removable media.
As more and more HDD storage is available for every computer, users started to partition their hard disk for a better control and maintenance of the data on it. So more and more partition appeared, each one created for a specific reason: partitions for music, for movies, for the operating system etc.
A good privacy solution would be hiding the partition that holds the incriminatory data. Data that you don't want to be accessible for the curious eyes. But how? Microsoft did not create any option that would enable the user to undertake such task?
There are two methods to hide a drive/partition:
1.Using TweakUI - this method is easier for inexperienced users and requires the installation of Tweak UI, a tweak utility created and delivered for
free by Microsoft.
2. The hard way - editing the registry.
Using TweakUI Tool
Download the utility and install it on your computer. Launch the application and in the left, go to My Computer -> Drives.
A list with all the drives will be displayed in the right. Every drive/partition has a checked sign in front. This means the drive/partition is visible under the Windows Explorer. To hide the desired drive, just uncheck its letter, click Apply and that's all. The drive will become hidden.
Even so, you will still have access to it by typing its letter in the explorer address bar. This is not a high security tweak but it offers protection against the curious eyes.
Editing the registry
In order to hide a drive/partition inside Windows, you can always edit the Registry. Although is not as comfortable as the method presented above, you can do it in a matter of minutes.
Go to Start -> Run and type Regedit to start the registry editor. Now you need to follow a specific key which must be edited:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER / Software / Microsoft / Windows / CurrentVersion / Policies / Explorer
Right click in the right panel and select New->DWORD value. Name it NoDrives. You will immediately observe that this new DWORD value got its data something like this: 0x00000000. The 0x in the front of the value means the number is stored hexadecimal (base 16). There are four sets of double 0. This means that every set has its representations as follows (from right to left):
- first set: drive letters from A to H
- second set: I to P
- third set: Q to X
- fourth set: Y to Z
The value number for the each drive is:
1 for A I Q Y, 2 for B J R Z, 4 for K C S, 8 for D L T, 16 for E M U, 32 for F N V, 64 for G O V and 80 for H P X.
Now focus on the information I provided you with above. If you want to hide partition E:, you should edit the NoDrives value as follows: E: corresponds to the first set of double 00 and the value for E is 16. Therefore, replace the first (rightmost) double 00 with 10 (the hexadecimal representation of the number 16).
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Good (3.1/5) |
11 vote(s) so far |
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User opinions: |
| Comment #1 by: Anonymous on 29 Jan 2008, 05:01 GMT |  reply to this comment | Just for extra Information, I don't think you can hide a partition that contains an OS, if you try to do so, it will prevent you to boot that OS. Im not sure if it also happen for the above methods as Im using partition magic. |
| Comment #2 by: Walt Strickler on 29 Jul 2008, 13:40 GMT | reply to this comment | BTW, thanks for this -- it was JUST what I was looking for, a bit of decimalness aside. |
| Comment #3 by: Walt Strickler on 29 Jul 2008, 13:44 GMT | reply to this comment | One last thing: You don't say WHICH pair of numbers is the first. On the right? On the left? I'm guessing it's on the right since each entry is little-endian. |
| Comment #3.1 by: Sorin on 30 Jul 2008, 07:11 GMT | Yes, in this case "first" means rightmost. The article has been updated accordingly. |
| Comment #4 by: Abdul Hadi Sabir on 10 Aug 2008, 06:54 GMT | reply to this comment | Dear All,
Here is an easy and short way of hiding computer hard drives partitions.
Click the Windows "Start" button. Click "Run." In the command line, type "gpedit.msc" to open the group policy editor.
Step2..Move your mouse down to "User Configuration" and click the " " sign next to it. Click the " " sign next to "Administration Template."
Step3..Browse down to "Windows Components" and click the " " next to it. Click on "Windows Explorer."
Step4..Look for the line that says "Hide these specific drives in my computer" on the right side of the screen. Double-click ""Hide these specific drives in my computer." You can also right-click, then click "Properties."
Step5...Select the box next to "Enabled." Click the arrow next to "Restrict All Drives" and select the drives you want to hide. Click "Apply." Click "OK." Click the red "X" in the top right corner to exit group policy editor.
Step6..Double-click the "My Computer" icon on your desktop to make sure the drive is hidden.
Step7...Check your personal firewall software for errors. If it pops up with a screen asking you to allow registry changes, click "Yes."
Thanks.
Abdul Hadi sabir. |
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