Vista Tutorial - Drive - Hide or Unhide

Information

This will show you how to hide or unhide a drive from being displayed in Computer and Windows Explorer in Vista. By default, all drives are not hidden.

NOTE

This will only hide or unhide the drive in Vista. It will not prevent access to it from say the command prompt or Run command window. To prevent access to a drive, see: How to Restrict or Unrestict Drive Access in Vista

WARNING

This will not unhide a drive that was not hidden by this method.

• How to Shrink and Create a Partition with Disk Management in Vista
• How to Delete and Extend a Partition with Disk Management in Vista
• How to Change a Drive Icon in Vista
• How to Show or Remove Drive Letters from Displaying in Vista
• How to Rename a Drive in Vista
• How to Disable or Enable Low Disk Space Warning in Vista
• How to Increase Hard Drive Performance in Vista
• How to Remove or Show Drive Letters in the Vista Send To Context Menu
• How to Add, Change, or Remove a Drive Letter in Vista
• How to Restrict or Unrestict Drive Access in Vista
• How to Deny or Allow Access to All Removable Drives in Vista
• How to Mount or Dismount a Drive or Partition to a Folder in Vista
• How to Retain the DVD Drive Icon if Disappeared from Computer

NOTE

This method is only available for the Vista Business, Ultimate, and Enterprise editions. See Method Two below for the Vista Basic and Home Premium editions. For more drive letter options, see the Manual section in Method Two below.

1. Open the Local Group Policy Editor.

2. In the left pane, click on User Configuration, Administrative Templates, Windows Components, and Windows Explorer. (See screenshot below)

3. In the right pane, right click on Hide these specified drives in My Computer and click on Properties. (See screenshot above)

4. To Unhide All Drives -

A) Select (dot) Disabled or Not Configured and click on OK. (See screenshot below step 5C)

B) Go to step 6.

5. To Hide a Drive or Combination of Drives -

A) Select (dot) Enabled.

B) Click on the drop down arrow and select the drive or combination of drives option that you want to set as restricted (hidden). (See screenshot below)
NOTE: Even though the options say Restrict, it is to Hide the drive(s).

C) Click on OK.

6. Close the Local Group Policy Editor window. Your done.

NOTE

This will work for all Vista versions.

Through a Download:
NOTE: Whichever REG file you choose to use, it will overide all of the others. For more drive letter options, see the Manual section below.

1. To Hide A and B drives only -

A)

B) Go to step 8.

2. To Hide C drive only -

A)

B) Go to step 8.

3. To Hide D drive only -

A)

B) Go to step 8.

4. To Hide A, B, and C drives only -

A)

B) Go to step 8.

5. To Hide A, B, C, and D drives only -

A)

B) Go to step 8.

6. To Hide All drives -

A)

B) Go to step 8.

7. To Unhide All drives -

A)

8. Click on Save, and save the .reg file to the Desktop.

9. Right click on the .reg file(on Desktop) and click on Merge.

10. Click on the Run button in the Security Warning pop-up.

11. Click on Continue (UAC), Yes, and then OK when prompted.

12. When done, you can delete the .reg file (on Desktop).

13. Logoff and logon, or restart the computer to apply changes.

The Manual Way:

1. Open the Start Menu.

2. In the white line (Start Search) area, type regedit and press Enter.

3. Click on the Continue button in the UAC prompt.

4. In regedit, go to: (See screenshot below)
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer

5. To Hide a Drive or Combination of Drives -

A) In the right pane of Explorer, right click on a empty area and click on New and DWORD (32-bit) Value and type NoDrives and press Enter. (See screenshot below)

B) Right click on NoDrives and click on Modify.

C) Type in the drive option hex number below in bold you want to set as restricted and click on OK. (See screenshot below)

Tip

You can also dot Decimal and use one of these numbers below for the drive with that letter you want hidden. To hide multiple drive letters, add the Decimal numbers together for each drive letter below that you want to hide, and use that number instead. 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 drives=67108863 For Example: I'm using 8 (hex number) to Hide D drive only, or for E=16 and F=32, I would use 16+32=48 (Decimal number).

• Hide A and B drives only - type 3 (hex)
• Hide C drive only - type 4 (hex)
• Hide D drive only - type 8 (hex)
• Hide A, B, and C drives only - type 7 (hex)
• Hide A, B, C, and D drives only - type f (hex)
• Hide all drives - type 3ffffff (hex)

D) The registry will now look like this. (See screenshot below)

E) Go to step 7.

6. To Unhide All drives -

A) In the right pane of Explorer, right click on NoDrives and click on Delete. (See screenshot above)

B) Click on Yes to confirm delete.

7. Close regedit.

8. Logoff and logon, or restart the computer to apply changes.