1

I'm trying to hide the data on my USB drive. I've come up with the idea to hide everything in a second partition, which Windows would not recognize. Then, in the first partition, there would be a batch file that, with the right password, would set the USB drive as a local drive and make the hidden partition visible. I can't, however, come up with a way to set the drive as a local drive using a batch file. Is there a way to do so?

If this method wouldn't work, even if there's a way to set the drive as local drive, then is there another way to lock an USB drive in such a way that it can't be read, written or formatted without admin rights?

Improve this question
6
  • Why don't you just password protect the drive?
    – DavidPostill ♦
    Nov 18, 2015 at 12:11
  • 1
    Take a look at this link. Follow my post about encrypting external HDD's with the built-in feature of Windows: EWS. You can't hide the data with it, but you can make it inaccesible.
    – doenoe
    Nov 18, 2015 at 12:14
  • I don't drive protect the drive because I can't do that without administrator access.
    – Jaïr Paalman
    Nov 18, 2015 at 12:47
  • Any command that could do this would require Administrator permissions. Since you don't have access to those permissions what you are asking for basically while possible can't be used by you.
    – Ramhound
    Nov 18, 2015 at 13:36
  • Why not just use a drive with built-in encryption? They aren’t even that expensive anymore.
    – Daniel B
    Nov 19, 2015 at 10:32

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
0

To manipulate partitions or drive letters on Windows you need administrative rights. Especially to do something like assign drive letters to other partitions on removable media.

One suggestion is to keep a portable copy of 7-zip on your USB drive, and store your data in a password protected .7z file. 7-zip encrypts using AES so unless someone guesses your password any data stored within is unreadable.

is there another way to lock an USB drive in such a way that it can't be read, written or formatted without admin rights?

You can't really protect any type of mass storage device from OS modification, but you can protect the data on it via encryption or using a read-only media like CD-ROM instead.

Improve this answer

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .