If you are a Windows user, you probably know about hiding or locking a folder or file that contains confidential data. In general, use some directory encryption software to perform these tasks. However, if you have many such folders and files, you should not lock each directory. A better option is to move all the files and folders you want to hide or don’t want others to know of their existence onto several drives on your computer. Then hide the entire drive, so it is not visible to anyone.

It’s the hidden drive that won’t be visible in Windows File Explorer but can be accessed through a Command Prompt or by typing the drive letter in Explorer’s address bar. So when someone uses your Windows computer, they don’t know that there is an existing drive in your computer and your confidential data is safe. This can be done in Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8 / 10. I will guide you through the steps to be followed in Windows 8.

Tutorial 4 How to Hide Disk in Windows 8/10

There are four ways to hide the drive in Windows 8. Through Disk Management, using Group Policy, through the Windows Registry, or using the Diskpart command in CMD. We will see step by step, so you can do the same way to hide the drive in Windows 8.

Method 1. Hide the drive by using Disk Management

If you want to hide the drive in Windows 8 through Disk Management, you need to right-click My Computer and then click Manage.

In the Computer Management Console, open Storage by double-clicking it.

4 Cách ẩn ổ đĩa trong Windows 10/ 8 nhanh

Now, double-click Disk Management Snap-in.

The Disk Management Console opens, and you can see all of your computer’s drives.

Select the drive you want to hide and right-click on it. Select ‘ Change Letter and Paths and click the Remove button.

If it asks for confirmation, say ‘Yes’. Now, you cannot see the hidden drive on My Computer.

Method 2. Hide the drive using Group Policy

Run gpedit.msc and navigate to the following settings:

User Configuration / Administrative Templates / Windows Components / File Explorer

Double-click Hide these specified drives in My Computer and select Enabled.

From the drop-down menu, select the drive you want to hide.

This policy setting allows you to hide these specified drives in My Computer. This policy setting allows you to remove icons representing selected hard drives from My Computer and File Explorer. Also, the drive letters representing the selected drives don’t appear in the standard Open dialog box. If you enable this policy setting, select a drive or a combination of drives in the drop-down list. This policy setting removes the drive icons. Users can still access the drive contents using other methods, such as by typing the path to a folder on the drive in the Map Network Drive dialog box, in the Run dialog box, or in a command prompt. . Additionally, this policy setting does not prevent users from using programs to access their drives or content. And, It does not prevent users from using Disk Manager to view and change disk properties. If you disable or do not configure this policy setting, all drives are displayed, or select the “Do not restrict drives” option in the drop-down list.

Save, and exit.

Method 3. Hide the drive with Windows Registry

This second way, we will use the NoDrives registry key to hide the drive in Windows 8. When we add access to the registry, you should back up your registry. Once done, proceed!

Press Windows Key + R, type ‘ regedit’, and press Enter. It asks for confirmation, says Yes’. Now, Registry Editor Console opens. Navigate to the path below,

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE -> Software -> Microsoft -> Windows -> CurrentVersion -> Explorer

We will create a new DWORD value, so right-click Explorer and choose New -> DWORD Value (32-bit).

Name it ‘NoDrives’ and double click on it to change the properties. Now the panel opens up where we need to enter the values. Under Value data, select the data based on the volume you want to hide. Each drive letter has unique values and values as shown below,

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

Select the corresponding value for the drive and enter it in ‘Value data’. Select ‘ Decimal ‘ for the Base section. When I want to hide, drive ‘G’, I enter the value as ’64’.

If you want to hide two drives, for example, ‘E’ and ‘G’, you can enter a value of ’80’ (E = 16 and G = 64), and it will hide both drives.

Restart your computer and drive in stealth mode. If you are supposed to get the drive back, change the value to Zero, or you can even delete the ‘NoDrives’ registry key.

Method 4. Hide the drive-by CMD

1] Open an upgrade command prompt, type Diskpart, and press Enter.

2] Type List Volume and press Enter.

3] Now, type in the tick and number for the Drive letter ( for example, possibly G Drive) that you want to hide. For example, it could be Select Volume 6—press Enter.

4] Finally, type Remove Letter G and press Enter.

You will see a message – Diskpart successfully removed the drive letter or mount point.

To show hidden drives, follow steps 1, 2, 3 mentioned above.

Now type Assign Letter D and press Enter. This will display the drive in Explorer.

If you need a detailed walk-through, see our forum post titled Hide or show your hard drive partitions using Diskpart.

Here are four ways you can hide a drive naturally in Windows. Good luck