Ever wish that you could make one of your computer's drives invisible to anyone snooping around on your system? haha, whether you have sensitive docs, pictures, or any other files, this is one of the easiest ways to keep them safe.

You'll still be able to access your hidden drives; you just won't see that they exist in Windows Explorer or the My Computer folder.

CAUTION: Back up your registry before you start the steps below!

Note: The simple way to backup registry is to use System Restore. Windows Me and XP users can create System Restore points, which back up all data (including the Registry) so you can restore your system to that precise state. You should run System Restore manually before you make major hardware or software changes or try to work with the Registry. Click Start, Programs ( All Programs, in XP), Accessories, System Tools, System Restore, choose Create a restore point, click Next, and follow the directions.

More info on System Restore.

After backing up registry, you can start:

1. Open Regedit.

2. Navigate to one of these strings:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\WindowsCurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer - this only changes the settings for the current logged in user

HKEY_LOCALMACHINE\Software\Microsoft\WindowsCurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer - this changes the settings for all users on the machine. You may have to create the key folder "Explorer" manually.

3. In the Explorer key folder, create a new DWORD value by right-clicking Explorer, then choosing New DWORD value. Name the value "NoDrives" (without the quotes). This value defines local and network drive visibility for each logical drive on the computer. All drives will be visible as long as this value's data is set to 0.

4. Following the table below, enter the decimal number corresponding to the drive(s) you want to hide as NoDrives value data. When you right-click on NoDrives and choose Modify, make sure you select Decimal base, not Hexadecimal.

Drive Number 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 drives 67108863

If you want to hide more than one drive, you simply add the drive amounts together for a combined total.

For example, to hide the D:/ and T:/ drives, add the decimal value for the D:/ drive to the decimal value to the T:/ drive.

8 (D) + 524288 (T) = 524296

To disable all of your visible drives, set the value to 67108863.

haha, remember to reboot your PC to see the changes. Have fun! :)

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