How do I disable a partition on Windows XP?

Question

I am performing some tests/troubleshooting on my machine and would like to hide/disable a few partitions or set them to read-only for a while. How do I go about doing this? All partions reside on the same physical disk.

Answer 1

You could remove the drive letter assignment for the specific partition(s):

1. Go to Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Computer Management
2. Expand Computer Management (Local) > Storage > Disk Management
3. Right click the specific partition you like to hide and select "Change Drive Letter and Paths"
4. Select the drive letter shown, click "Remove" and click "OK"