How To Hide Or Unhide Any Drive In Windows 10

Introduction

A quality feature in the Windows family is to hide or unhide the drive partition or volume. We can also use this feature in Windows 10 to hide or unhide the partitions as well. The user can hide or unhide the drive partition by using the built-in Disk Management Tool and also by using various methods. It is not a well-known feature among users.

Some users do not want to share their important and confidential data with other persons. Those users have a unique feature in Windows 10. If the user has a number of files or folders, it is difficult to lock or hide every file and folder. Instead of this, it is easy to create a separate drive or volume by shrinking any existing drive and volume and placing all files and folders in that particular drive. It is really a unique feature in the Windows family because no one can access this hidden drive or partition even by using the search option, RUN command, and Command Prompt (Cmd). If a person knows the files' and folders' names, he would not be able to find particular files or folders using any searching methods.

When the users feel secure that their confidential data is far away from unauthorized hands, they can unhide the hidden drive or partition by various methods.

Note. I have described in detail in my previous article on the topic, "How to shrink the Hard disk partition in Windows 10".

This tutorial will show you various methods on how to hide any hard disk drive in Windows 10.

Method 1. Using Command Prompt or Windows Powershell (Admin)

Step 1. From the Start menu, open the Run dialog box or you can Press the "Window + R" key to open the RUN window.

Step 2. Type "diskpart" and press enter key.

Step 3. Type "list volume" and press the enter button.

Step 4. Type "select volume <number>" and press enter key.

For example: select volume 0

Step 5. Type "remove letter <Ltr>" (Replace the <Ltr> with the drive's letter which you want to remove) and press the enter button.

For example: remove the letter V

Unhide the Drive Using Command Prompt

Step 1. Press the "Windows + R" key to open the Run Windows.

Step 2. Type "diskpart" and press the enter button.

Step 3. Type "list volume" and then "select volume <number>" and press enter key.

For example: select volume 0

Step 4. Type "assign letter <Ltr>" (replace the <Ltr> with the drive's letter which you want to assign) and press enter key.

For example: assign the letter H

Method 2. By removing the Drive Letter

Step 1. From the Start menu, open the Run dialog box or you can press the "Window + R" key to open the RUN window.

Step 2. Type "diskmgmt.msc" and press enter key to open Disk Management.

Step 3. Choose the Drive which you want to hide and right-click on it, then select "Change Drive Letters and Paths".

Step 4. Select the Drive and click on the Remove button.

By following the above steps, the selected drive will be hidden.

Unhide the Drive Using Disk Management

Step 1. Press the "Windows + R" key to open the Run Windows.

Step 2. Type "diskmgmt.msc" and press enter key.

Step 3. Right-click on the drive hidden by you, and choose Change Drive Letters and Paths.

Step 4. The "Change Drive Letter and Paths for New Volume" Window will appear on the screen then click on the Add button.

Step 5. Add a new drive letter or path by selecting the "Assign the following drive letter" option and clicking OK.

Method 3. Using Registry Editor

Step 1. From the Start menu, open the Run dialog box or you can press the "Window + R" key to open the RUN window.

Step 2. Type "regedit.exe" and press enter key.

Step 3. Registry Editor window will appear on the screen, and Navigate the following path.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > Software > Microsoft > Windows > CurrentVersion > Policies > Explorer

Step 4. Right-click on the "Explorer" option and select New > DWORD (32-bit) Value.

Step 5. Name the new DWORD as NoDrives and press the enter key, then double-click on it to change its value data.

Step 6. Select the 'Decimal' option and enter the number in the 'value data' that represents the drive letter.

For example:128 value is used to hide the H drive.

Note. Use these decimal numbers to hide the related drives,

Drives	Value data
Show All	0
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
Hide All	67108863

Note. If you want to hide multiple drives then add the decimal numbers (such as, for Drive D and E use 24).

Step 7. Click on the OK button and restart your system to see the effects.

Unhide the Drive Using Registry Editor

If you want to unhide the Drive, then simply delete the NoDrive DWORD. 

Method 4. Using Disk Management

Step 1. From the Start menu, open the Run dialog box or you can press the "Window + R" key to open the RUN window.

Step 2. Type "diskmgmt.msc" and press enter key to open Disk Management.

Step 3. Choose the Drive which you want to hide and right-click on it, then select "Change Drive Letters and Paths".

Step 4. Select the Drive and click on the Remove button.

Step 5. Now, again choose the Drive and select "Change Drive Letter and paths".

Step 6. Click on the Add button.

Step 7. Select the "Mount in the following empty NTFS folder" option click on the browse button navigate the path, where you want to hide your Drive, and then click OK.

Step 8. Navigate the location where you have mounted your drive right-click on the drive and select properties.

Step 9. Under the General Tab, click on the "Hidden" Attributes.

Step 10. Select "Apply changes to this folder only" and click on the OK button.

Unhide the Drive Using Disk Management

Step 1. From the Start menu, open the Run dialog box or you can press the "Window + R" key to open the RUN window.

Step 2. Type "diskmgmt.msc" and press enter key to open Disk Management.

Step 3. Right-click on the drive hidden by you, then select "Change Drive Letters and Paths".

Step 4. Remove the mentioned drive letter and path, then click on the OK button.

Step 5. Again, Right click on the drive hidden by you, then select "Change Drive Letters and Paths".

Step 6. Click on the Add button select the "Assign the following drive letter" option and click on the OK button.

Conclusion

By following any of the above methods, you can hide or unhide the drive or partition in Windows 10.

In my next article, you will read about "How to create or remove a hard drive partition in Windows 10" in the Disk Management Series.

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