How to Hide and Lock Hard Disk Drives from My Computer

We all have a lot of personal data stored in our computer which we don`t want to share with anyone say, personal images/videos etc. This is only good when only you have the access to our personal laptop or computer, This makes a feeling that your data is safe and secure.

But,what if others have access to your laptop?
They can easily access your personal stuff and what can you do? Nothing.

Say, You have your favourite videos and movies stored in your laptop and you don`t want to share them with anyone, fine.
But, one of your friend came, copy all of that to his device. You`re looking as a spectator. You have no choice.

But here`s a choice. How good is that when you put all your personal stuff in a drive and hide that. Better Idea!
But How?
You have many options to do the same. Explained below :

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Hide Local disk drive from Disk Management :

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• Right click on Computer or My Computer from Desktop.

                                   OR

• Start >> Computer >>Right click 

• Click on Manage   i.e. Computer Management

• New window appears ,In left Pane, Click on Disk Management..

• All Partitions are listed , Select Any Partition which you want to hide.

• Right click on that Partition,choose Change drive letter and paths..

• A new window opens, Select and Click on Remove.

You have done.

To show back.....Follow the same and click on Add..

=>> Get the Image Guidance Here :  How to Change Letter of Disk Drives

Note: This setting removes the drive icons. Users can still gain access to drive contents by using other methods, such as by typing the path to a directory on the drive in the Map Network Drive dialog box, in the Run dialog box, or in a command window.

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Hide Local disk drive Using Group Policy Editor ( gpedit ) : 

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• Start >> Run.. >> Type gpedit.msc and open.

• In new window, Expand Administrative Template under User Configuration.

• Then , Expand windows components 

• Scrolls down and Click on Windows Explorer ,no need to expand.

• Look for Hide these specified drives in My Computer , Double click to open.

• New window opens, Select Enabled and choose a drive of your choice from options and close this window after restrict a drive of your choice. 

Note : This only Hides the drive,  Users can still gain access to drive contents by using other methods, such as by typing the path to a directory on the drive in the Map Network Drive dialog box, in the Run dialog box, or in a command window.

To stop Access to Contents  and Folders , Do the following also :

• Then again,In the Windows Explorer window ,look for  Prevent access to drives from My Computer

• Double click to open and select Enabled , Again choose a drive to restrict which you have chosen in previous step to hide.

                                                   Click on Image to Zoom

Note : This prevents access to your Drive and its contents.If You don`t hide Drive In Previous Step and Only choose this setting of prevention Access ,Your Drive will be visible but don`t open. a winow with a error opens when anyone click on that Drive.



To Make drive Visible again : Follow the same and Select Disabled or Not configured in both the Steps.

That`s it. You have done.

There is also another method using Registry Editor which can be used to hide all the drives.

Have Fun!