How to create a hidden drive in Windows (free method)

How to create a hidden drive in Windows (free method)
The drive will not show up in My Computer, will not be accessible from the command prompt, and won’t even show up in Safe Mode!

Before applying the hack, please back up your registry. You can do it by exporting it with regedit:

1. Click Start, and then click Run.
2. In the Open box, type regedit, and then click OK.
3. Navigate to the very top of the registry key branches until you reach Computer.
4. Highlight Computer by clicking on it once.
5. From the Registry Editor menu, choose File and then choose Export....
6. In the Save in box, select a location where you want to save the Registration Entries (.reg)
7. In the File name box, type a file name, and then click Save.

The exported registry file is about 10-100 MB in size on a typical Windows 2000/XP/Vista installation. Please note that instead of backing up the whole registry you can back up a particular value only.

You can also make the duplicate key and rename it way if you need to come back to the original setting, you have it there.

How to create a hidden drive in Windows with Registry Editor

1. In the Registry Editor navigate to the following registry hive:
   

   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer

2. Right-click on Explorer and choose "New" and then "DWORD Value".
3. Name the new value "NoDrives" and then double click on it to open the properties dialog box. Click on "Decimal" for the Base unit.
4. Type in one of the following values depending on that drive letter you want to hide.
   • 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
   
   If you want to hide drive F, enter 16. If you want to hide drive H, enter 128.
   
   You can also hide multiple drives. For example, if you want to hide both drive F and drive H, enter 144, which is 16+128.
   
5. Restart your computer for changes to make effect.

Please note that you can't hide system drives this way, because Windows needs it to work.

How to unhide your drive
When you want to get your drives back, change the value of NoDrives to 0.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer

To make it easier you can create a couple of .reg files by exporting NoDrives, one with 0 and another one with the value that you need. By double-clicking .reg files you will be able to hide and unhide your drive(s).