Here is a tip for those who need to hide or unhide an external hard drive from the Microsoft Windows Operating System that uses Legacy technology. The tip is also for 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 an open area in the 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 an open area in the Windows Explorer, then select Refresh from the options.
The drive status should now be available or unavailable for read and write access.
Stephan Pringle
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