Vista Tutorial - Drive - Hide or Unhide

**Brink** · **METHOD ONE:**

How to Hide or Unhide a Drive in Vista

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.

RELATED LINKS:

EXAMPLE: The D drive set to Unhide and Hide in Computer
NOTE: Open the Start menu and click on the Computer button to see this.

METHOD ONE:
Through the Local Group Policy Editor

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.

METHOD TWO:
Through the Registry

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 below in bold you want to set as restricted and click on OK. (See screenshot below)
NOTE: You can also dot Decimal and use one of these numbers for the drive with that letter you want hidden: 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.

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.

That's it,
Shawn

poisonpanik · 05-30-2008

I have a partition on my 2nd HDD labeled F: which is my windows vista backup and I want to hide it so you can't even see it but when I attempted these steps I got choices A, B, C, and D for drive letters but that was it. I have a C: and D: (D: is the big partition on the 2nd HDD) and F: (small partition on 2nd HDD) Any clue how I can hide this backup drive?

**Brink** · 05-30-2008

Hi Poisonpanik,

You will just need to do the manual way instead in METHOD TWO. Dot Decimal and type 32 (for F: drive) in step 5C.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

poisonpanik · 05-30-2008

Ah I see, thanks! I completely missed that when I read through this.

**Brink** · 05-30-2008

Your welcome Poisonpanik, and welcome to Vista Forums.

Shawn

poisonpanik · 05-30-2008

Thanks Brink and thanks for the SUPER FAST reply. It worked like a champ! I will be sure and pass the word on about this site. So much good info in one place. It's a gold mine!

gixykings · 08-07-2008

i've vista hp, method 2 does not work for drive z:

**Brink** · 08-07-2008

Hi Gixykings,

I have a few questions first.

What type of drive is it?

Did you dot Decimal in the Modify window and type 33554432?

Did you restart the computer afterwards to apply the changes?

gixykings · 08-18-2008

very sorry, it's my fault. The drive is hidden after restart.

**Brink** · 08-18-2008

No problem Gixykings. I'm happy to hear that it is hidden now.