How To Hide A Drive In Windows 10?

Our personal computer is mostly filled with lot of sensitive and valuable data like photos, videos, documents etc. In all probability to protect that data from stalkers you hide that file or folder containing personal content. But what if you have a lot of content that you wish to keep secret? Imagine having to hide each individual file! An uphill task to say the least. In such cases the better option is to place all your files and folders containing sensitive information in a specific drive and then hide that drive. Now once the Windows drive is hidden, anyone accessing your system will remain under the misconception that the drive doesn’t exist  thus, providing your personal data more security from prying eyes.

Also Read – Move Installed Programs To Another Drive In Windows 10

Hide a Drive in Windows

As you all know that whenever we attach a drive to the computer, Windows automatically allocates it a drive letter. Similarly, when we create partition on our internal drive, Windows allocates a drive letter to each partition like Drive C, Drive D and so on. Therefore, you can easily hide any drive in Windows using any of the methods given below.

Hide Drive Using Disk Management Tool

When we hide a drive in Windows using Disk Management we are actually unmounting it as unmounting any drive in Windows will make it completely hidden, even from you.

1. To get started, press Windows Key + x, and from the menu select, Disk Management.
   
2. This will open Disk Management Window providing you with all the details of the Windows drive like their capacity, file system, free space etc.
   
3. Now right click on the drive that you wish to hide and from the drop-down menu select Change Drive Letter and Paths.
   
4. Select the drive letter and click on Remove button.
   
5. Click on Yes in the warning box that prompts.
   

That’s all. Now the drive will become invisible for all the users (including you) who will access your computer.

Also Read: 10 Best Driver Updater Software for Windows 2018

Hide the Drive Using Registry Editor

As we all know that how powerful Registry Editor is one can make almost any change in the Windows using Registry Editor. Therefore, we suggest our users to be extra cautious while trying to use Registry Editor.

1. Press Windows + R to open Run command. Type, regedit and click on Ok button.
   
2. In the UAC that prompts, click on Yes button.
3. This will open Registry Editor. Now navigate to the following path:
   
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\ Explorer
   
4. The next step is to create a new DWORD value. To create, right-click on the right pane and select New > DWORD (32-bit) Value.
   
5. This will create a new DWORD (32-bit) Value. Rename this value so that you can remember the purpose you have created it for. We have renamed it HideDrive.
   
6. Double click on new DWORD value that we have renamed as HideDrive, select Decimal in Base. Now, since we wish to hide drive E enter 16 in the Value data field and press OK.
   Please note that by default Windows assign a unique drive letter to each Windows drive.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
   Also if in case you wish to hide drive D along with drive E then you do not need to create two separate DWORD values. You can just write 24(8 for D+16 for E) in the Value data field. This will hide both the drives.
   
7. Close Registry Editor and reboot the computer. Once the computer restarts you will not find the drive in File Explorer.

However please be assured that the drive is only hidden, and all its data is still in your hard disk.

Hide Drive Using Command Prompt

Command Prompt, the character user interface of Windows helps you to perform almost any task in the Windows using the commands. Here, we will also hide a drive in Windows using Command Prompt.

1. 1. To get started type cmd in the Windows Search. Now right click on Command Prompt and select Run as administrator.
      

1. 1. In the Command Prompt window type Diskpart and press Enter.

1. Now type List Volume command and press Enter. This will list all the drives present in your system along with their type of file system, total size and labels.
   
2. Now to hide the drive first we have to select the volume. For example, if we wish to hide drive E we need to select Volume 1. Type in select Volume 1 command on the screen and press Enter.  You will not get a message that Volume 1 is the selected volume.
3. Now type in the command remove letter E (since we wish to hide drive E) and press Enter. You will receive a confirmation message right there in the Command Prompt “DiskPart successfully removed the drive letter or mount point.”
   

This will instantly hide the drive in Windows. Now, if you go to File Explorer you will not find the drive.

So, readers, that’s it from our side. You can use any of the above listed methods to hide the drive in Windows and keep all your personal files secure from snooping eyes.

Also, if you have any other way to hide the drive in Windows please share with us in the comment box below.