Here is a tip to hide or unhide an external hard drive from the Microsoft Windows Operating System that uses Legacy technology. The tip is valid to hide or unhide an internal hard drive that is not blocked by SmartShield by Centurion Technologies.

WARNING: The unhide tip below will not work with Windows 8 or higher on the primary hard drive and an older OS (i.e., XP, Vista, or Windows 7) on the secondary drive if UEFI is set up in the BIOS so the slave drive should be connected to the computer using a SATA/IDE to USB transfer cable. If you connect the drive directly to the motherboard as a secondary drive, Disk Management will prompt you to initialize/format the drive, and you will lose all the data.

Using Windows Windows 8/10/11
1. Log into the Windows OS with an account from the Administrator group.
2. When your startup programs load, right click on the Start button.
3. When the menu opens, left click on Disk Management.
4a. To hide the hard drive, right click on the drive that says Online.
4b. To unhide the hard drive, right click on the drive that says Offline.
5. Minimize or close the Computer Management window.
6. Navigate to My Computer.
7. Right click in Windows Explorer then select Refresh from the options.

The drive status should now be available or unavailable for read and write access.

Using Windows Windows 7
1. Log into the Windows OS with an account from the Administrator group.
2. When your startup programs load, left click on the Start button.
3. When the Start Menu opens, right click on Computer on the right column.
5. When listed, left click on Manage and wait for a window.
6. In the Computer Management window, expand Disk Management.
7a. To hide the hard drive, right click on the drive that says Online.
7b. To unhide the hard drive, right click on the drive that says Offline.
8. Minimize or close the Computer Management window.
9. Navigate to My Computer.
10. Right click in Windows Explorer then select Refresh from the options.

The drive status should now be available or unavailable for read and write access.

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Stephan Pringle

Technology Support Specialist at Sipylus

About The Author: Stephan Pringle is an Information Technology Support Specialist. He covers hardware and software and provides tips for you to troubleshoot and repair issues on your own. In his spare time, he writes articles about the State of New York on his Hackintosh and HackBook and that has helped him to become the top contributor of the New York City section of Yahoo! Answers.

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