hide partitions in Win7?

[Timothy Daniels]

Is there a way to hide a partitions in Win7 from view
so that utilities like BCDedit don't see them? I'd like to use
the automatic repair functions of the installation DVD
to set up the boot menu in a specific partition to point
to just the OS in that partition, and NOT any other OSes
on the same or other hard drives.

Currently, I use the automatic functions to build a
multi-entry menu in the BCD of the active partition,
and then I use BCDedit to delete the entries that point
to other partitions - which is a kludge.

*TimDaniels*

 

[Bob I]

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/197157-partition-mark-inactive.html

 

[Dave]

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/197157-partition-mark-inactive.html

That link seems to be marking a partition as active/non-active, not what
the op asked.
You can simply remove the drive letter under disk management, but I don't
know if this will fool a utility that searches for partitions.
One sure way is to use something like bootit from
www.terabyteunlimited.com, This will permit loading a choice of partition
tables when running in it's unlimited primaries mode. However, bootit is a
great utility for multi booting, it's a bit clumsy for what the op wants.

 

[Paul]

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/197157-partition-mark-inactive.html

You can use PTEDIT32, to examine what that tutorial might be doing.

ftp://ftp.symantec.com/public/english_us_canada/tools/pq/utilities/PTEDIT32.zip

On a modern OS, you "Run As Administrator" for ptedit32.exe,
to avoid an error 5. That tool shows the primary partition table
(and not all disk setups can be viewed thoroughly that way). Still,
if the "inactive" is just setting the partition type
field to zero, you can figure it out.

Setting the partition type field to zero temporarily, does
not stop software from finding a partition. Try running
TestDisk and it'll still find the partition.

As long as software has block level access to a drive,
it's still exposed. Even if you enter the BIOS and
turn off a drive there, that only lasts for the boot interval.
I did a test, and Linux turned on a drive which was
turned off in the BIOS. So that doesn't work either.
And I've had Linux load GRUB on the wrong partition...

The only sure-fire way to stop disk access, is unplug it
Other half-measures, are fine if you know for a fact
the tool you're using, will listen to what you've done.

Paul

 

[Timothy Daniels]

It looks like Partition Wizard (seems to be the successor to Partition Magic)
and GParted can "hide" a partition from view. I was hoping that there might
be a Microsoft utility that was built into Win7 or its installation DVD to do
that, but apparently not.

As for unplugging a hard drive to make the entire drive "hidden", I used to
do the equivalent in a WinXP system with toggle switches in the power
cables for the hard drives. The micro switches were mounted in the 1/4"
ventilation holes of the steel chassis, underneath the plastic fascia for
protection. After making a clone on the "destination" hard drive, I set its
partition "active", shut down the system, flipped the "parent" hard drive's
power switch to OFF, and then booted up the clone for its first run without
a view of its "parent" system - a necessary precaution with WinXP.
It worked fine, but my current workstation would require drilling to make
the requisite mounting holes, and drilling in the vicinity of the motherboard
is chancey.

*TimDaniels*

 

[Char Jackson]

As for unplugging a hard drive to make the entire drive "hidden", I used to
do the equivalent in a WinXP system with toggle switches in the power
cables for the hard drives. The micro switches were mounted in the 1/4"
ventilation holes of the steel chassis, underneath the plastic fascia for
protection. After making a clone on the "destination" hard drive, I set its
partition "active", shut down the system, flipped the "parent" hard drive's
power switch to OFF, and then booted up the clone for its first run without
a view of its "parent" system - a necessary precaution with WinXP.
It worked fine, but my current workstation would require drilling to make
the requisite mounting holes, and drilling in the vicinity of the motherboard
is chancey.

Like you, I wouldn't drill near a motherboard, but since you said it's a
workstation it shouldn't be hard to remove everything, including the
motherboard, prior to picking up the drill. I'm guessing 15 minutes for
complete system disassembly and maybe 30 minutes to put it all back
together. Maybe a bit longer if it's been awhile since you've done it, but
it's a great opportunity to clean out the dust bunnies.