How To Hide An Entire Drive Partition On Windows 10

How To Hide An Entire Drive Partition On Windows 10
Being a Windows 10 user you may already know how to hide particular files or folders which is an effective way to keep away a few files or folders from the prying eyes. However, if you want to keep lots of confidential files or folders under single wrap then hiding the entire drive can be the best alternative way. So, on this post, I will share “How to hide and unhide the entire drive partition on Windows 10”.

Hide Entire Drive Partition By Removing The Drive Letter:

By default Windows 10 assign a letter for every drive partition to make them visible and accessible. However, if we manually delete the drive letter then the particular drive partition will not be visible anymore. Here we are going to use this trick to make a drive invisible. On Windows 10, the drive letter can be removed in two ways.

(A) Remove Drive Letter Using Command Prompt:

Step 1: Press “Win+X” key together and then click on Command Prompt(Admin).
Step 2: Click Yes in the pop-up box.
Step 3: Type “diskpart” on the command prompt and press Enter.
Step 4: Type “list volume” and press Enter which will show you the list of drives those connected with your system.
Step 5: Choose the drive carefully that you want to hide and then type the drive number after “select volume” and hit Enter.
For example – select volume 0
Step 6: Now type the letter associated with the respected drive after “remove letter” and press Enter again.
Example – remove letter H
Step 7: Type “exit” and hit Enter.
Remove Drive Letter using Windows 10 command prompt
Now the drive will become hidden also no one can access the drive by entering the address of this particular drive.
To access the drive again follow the above mention steps (steps 1 to 7) but in step 6 replace “remove letter” by “assign letter”
Example – assign letter H

(B) Remove Drive Letter Using Disk Management:

Step 1: Press “Win+X” key together on Windows 10 and then click on “Disk Management
Step 2: Select the drive that you want to hide and right-click on it.
Step 3: Click on “Change Drive Letter and Paths“.
Windows 10 Disk manager
Step 4: Click on “Remove” and the “Ok”
Remove Drive Letter Using Disk Manager-Windows 10
The drive that you want to hide will become invisible now.
To unhide the drive again
Step 1: Run “Disk Management
Step 2: Select and right-click on the drive that is already hidden(Generally its remains blank).
Step 3: Click on “Change Drive Letter and Paths”.
Step 4: Click on “Add” and select “Assign the following drive letter
Step 5: Click on Ok. Additionally, you can also choose a different letter for the respective drive.

Hide Entire Drive Partition By Windows 10 Registry Editor:

Another alternative way to hide a particular drive partition on Windows 10 is: adding NoDrive value including the respective drive’s DWORD data in the Windows 10 registry editor. However, in this way, the particular drive can be accessed by entering the drive’s address on the File Explorer address bar.
Note: Editing the registry setting can be risky as it can distort Windows installation files if you don’t do it correctly, so create a restore point before performing this.
Step 1: Open Run by pressing Win+R together.
Step 2: Type “regedit” on the box and then click on OK to run the Registry Editor.
Open Registry Editor-Windows 10
Step 3: On the left panel of Registry Editor double-click on HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE.
Hide Entire Drive Partition Using Windows 10 Registry Editor- Navigate through registry editor
Step 4: Then scroll down and find Software and double-click on it.
Step 5: Again find Microsoft under Software and double-click on it.
Step 6: Similarly double-click on Windows.
Step 7: Then double-click on CurrentVersion.
Step 8: Double-click on Policies.
Step 9: Double-click on Explorer.
Step 10: Right-click on Explorer.
Step 11: Spot New and navigate DWORD (32-bit) Value then click on it.
Step 12: Name this value NoDrives and hit Enter to continue.
Step 13: Double-click on NoDrive.
Step 14: Under the Base of the Edit DWORD (32-bit) Value pop up box, check the box next to decimal.
Hide Entire Drive Partition Using Windows 10 Registry Editor- Adding NoDrive value
Step 15: Now enter the decimal number that represents the specific drive letter you want to hide on the Value data. For the purpose of this post, we will be using value 128, because we are going to hide H: drive here. If you need to hide multiple drives together then you have to add the decimal value. For Example: If you are trying to hide E: and H: drive you’ll need to add 16+128, which means that the value you need to enter is 144.
Step 16: Now click OK and close the registry.
Hide Entire Drive Partition Using Windows 10 Registry Editor- DWORD value
List of decimal values-A: 1, B: 2, C: 4, D: 8, E: 16, F: 32, G: 64, H: 128, I: 256, J: 512, K: 1024, L: 2048, M: 4096, N: 8192, O: 16384, P: 32768, Q: 65536, R: 131072, S: 262144, T: 524288, U: 1048576, V: 2097152, W: 4194304, X: 8388608, Y: 16777216, Z: 33554432, ALL: 67108863.
Step 17: Restart the computer to apply the new changes.
After restarting the computer the file will become hidden but it remains accessible. To undo the changes go to Registry Editor and delete NoDrives then reboot your system.

Hide Entire Drive Partition By Windows 10 Group Policy:

Another easiest way to hide the entire drive partition is by using group policy on Window 10. However, there are some limitations of using group policy; i.e., a limited number of drive combination are available here. To hide specific drives using Group Policy:

Step 1: Press “Win+R” key together and then type gpedit.msc.

Step 2: Now click Ok to open local group policy editor.

Step 3: Navigate through the following path

User Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > File Explorer

Step 4: Find and double click on the Hide these specified drives in My Computer.

Hide entire drive using group policy editor on windows 10

Step 5: Check Enable option
Step 6: Now under Options select the drive combinations you want to hide from the drop-down menu.
Step 7: Click Apply and then Ok.

Windows 10 group policy-choose the drive combination

Once you complete the above steps the specific drive combinations will not be visible on File Explorer. But remember that hiding entire drive using Windows 10 group policy means hiding drive by removing the drive icon only. You will still be able t access the drive content from the address bar of File Explorer or from Command prompt.

To unhide the drive follow the above steps (up to step 4) and check the Not Configured options 

Conclusion:

Plenty of third party applications are already there for Windows 10 where you can hide any files, folders or entire drive in a few click. But if you want to use Windows resources to hide those files, folders or drive then you can follow these tips.

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