How do I hide a drive

[cgott42]

I have 1 hard drive with 2 partitions (C: and D
I installed Win XP Pro on each partition.
so when booting, I choose which OS/Patition I would like to run.

When I run the D: partition, how can I set things so that the C: drive will be unaccessable (i.e. I don't want to inadvertintely save things to that drive while using the D: 's O/S)?

 

[JonnyBlaze]

go into computer management / disk manager on each install and remove the other drive letter

 

[cgott42]

I found the computer manager/disk manager
however when I click on the C: drive (while running the D: drive)
it doesn't give me any option to remove, the only thing close is "Change Drive Letter and Path" -when I click that it does give me an option for remove, or change, but when I try either it gives me an error message/window:
"Windows cannot remove the drive letter of your system volume or boot volume"

??

 

[Skeeedunt]

Does the D: drive actually appear as D: when you boot off it? Sometimes Windows will label the boot partition as C: even if it's not the first partition on the drive.

 

[cgott42]

Nope, still keeps it as D: even when IO boot off of it.

 

[Pirotech]

Hi, cgott42
You should use special software, for example Disk Director from Acronis. It can hide partitions, and do many other operations with hard drive.

 

[nartac]

I believe TweakUI has a feature to hide drives. It's free so give it a try.

 

[Navid]

1- Backup your data.
2- Use GParted (Link) to delete your partition D.
3- Use Gparted to hide partition C (first partition I assume).
4- Install XP on the second partition. When installation is complete, it will be drive C. Use your backup to bring your data back.
5- Use GParted to select one of the two to be active and the other to be hidden and reboot. The one you boot to will always be C. The other will be hidden.


The disadvantage of this setup is that switching the OS requires you to use GParted to change the hidden partition. This is not as quick as using a dual-boot menu.

If you do it this way, the system and boot partition will always be the one you boot to.

Currently, your boot partition is your first partition for your both installations.

Link

 

[RebateMonger]

Depending on what you are trying to do, you could also consider just installing the second XP Pro in a Virtual PC virtual machine. That would solve your drive access problem and you could have both XP machines open at the same time if you want.

 

[Nothinman]

"Windows cannot remove the drive letter of your system volume or boot volume"

From that it should be obvious that you're booting both OSes from the same drive and if you hide your C: then the second OS will become unbootable. This is one of many reasons why dualbooting sucks, look at getting yourself a copy of VMWare and install one instance of XP in there instead.

 

[cgott42]

It's a single hard drive, with a logical partition.
Is that causing the problem?

 

[Nothinman]

No, your system is booting from that drive no matter which OS you choose so the boot files for both OSes are on the bootable partition. If the second OS was on a separate physical drive you'd still have the same problem unless you switched their order in the BIOS or unplugged the first drive before doing the installation on the second.

 

[Navid]

When you installed the second instance of XP, the first one was active and visible. So, it is the boot partition for both.

 

[cgott42]

Originally posted by: Navid
When you installed the second instance of XP, the first one was active and visible. So, it is the boot partition for both.

Bingo.
I'm able to remove/hide the logical D: drive while in the C: boot. However when booting to D: I can't touch the C: drive- I guess for the reason that you've said.

Will Tweak UI help this?

 

[Navid]

Originally posted by: cgott42

Originally posted by: Navid
When you installed the second instance of XP, the first one was active and visible. So, it is the boot partition for both.

Bingo.
I'm able to remove/hide the logical D: drive while in the C: boot. However when booting to D: I can't touch the C: drive- I guess for the reason that you've said.

Will Tweak UI help this?

I doubt that!

I would either do as Nothinman suggested (using virtual machines).
Or do as I suggested.
Always backup your data first before doing anything major like manipulating partitions.

 

[cgott42]

I'd like to stay away from playing with the partitions.

All I REALLY need is to restrict access to the c: drive, while I'm working in D:
does that make it any easier.
i.e. - the drive could be visible, I just want to restrict WRITE access to the C: (i.e. READ ?ONLY)

 

[Navid]

Originally posted by: cgott42
I'd like to stay away from playing with the partitions.

In that case, get another hard drive and put each OS on one, or try the virtual machine option.

 

[Nothinman]

All I REALLY need is to restrict access to the c: drive, while I'm working in D:

If you really need this level of access control stop f'ing with partitions and start looking at either separate machines or virtual machines. It's quite simple.