Hard Drive Tweaks

Discussion in 'Windows' started by Rastyn, Mar 28, 2008.

  1. Rastyn

    Rastyn New Member

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    Ever wish you could make one of your computer's drives invisible to anyone snooping around on your system? Well, happy days are here my friend! Whether you have sensitive docs, pictures, or any other private data, this is one of the easiest ways to keep them safe. Keep in mind that 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. Back up your registry before you start!

    1. Open Regedit.

    2. Navigate to one of these strings:

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

    HKEY_LOCALMACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\
    CurrentVersion\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.

    You must reboot your PC to see your changes.
     
  2. carbide20

    carbide20 New Member

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    and while we are completely off topic, lets all go to IntenseCoders.com!!!

    there is a time and a place for spamming Sandra Rupert.... you seem to fail.
     
  3. shabbir

    shabbir Administrator Staff Member

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    The spam post is deleted.
     
  4. ron_genum

    ron_genum New Member

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    just wanna ask how to bskup the registry, is it really possible? i was really amazed with this article, it gives me idea on securing my file from those end users which might damage my file specially those who belong to my network
     
  5. shabbir

    shabbir Administrator Staff Member

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  6. Bhullarz

    Bhullarz New Member

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    yes, This can be the case if you want to secure a complete drive. But tweaking the registry for a beginner or novice user, is always risky. If you have any folder / file to secure, you can use DOS command "attrib". Command would be like to hide a folder in explorer
    Code:
     attrib +h +s folder_name
    Folder name can be replaced with any file name.
    This hidden file/folder will not be visible whether you have selected to view hidden files. You can access these files from address bar of explorer.

    Actually windows does not show contents of system folders by default. I am just using this behavior and turning on the system attribute of files/folders.
     
  7. ron_genum

    ron_genum New Member

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    it really works great, it really hides my file but what shall i do to renew the settings of my folder just like before?

    tnx a lot
     
  8. Bhullarz

    Bhullarz New Member

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    To bring back the folder previous setting, you can use the following code:
    Code:
    attrib -h -s folder_name
     
  9. ron_genum

    ron_genum New Member

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    ohh great it really works tnx a lot
     
  10. shabbir

    shabbir Administrator Staff Member

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  11. JobMatchNow

    JobMatchNow New Member

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    How did you learn this?
     
  12. Bhullarz

    Bhullarz New Member

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    Keep visiting go4expert.com, you will learn many things. Moreover you can just go for MFC/Win32 programming and for registry tweaking, you should read Windows XP Registry Guide.
     
  13. JobMatchNow

    JobMatchNow New Member

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    I didnt know you could do that, I'll try it on my computer.
     
  14. vimbite

    vimbite New Member

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  15. regsvr.exe

    regsvr.exe New Member

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