Windows To Go - Unhide Drives from Host Computer

How to Hide or Unhide Drives from Host Computer on "Windows To Go" Workspace​

information   Information
When you are booted to the Windows To Go USB flash drive, the host PC internal hard drives will be offline by default to be hidden and unaccessible by the Windows To Go workspace. The only exception is that the host PC that you created Windows To Go on will let you see only it's internal data drives and never it's OS drive by default.

This tutorial will show you how to hide or unhide the internal hard drives from the host PC to have access to them while on the Windows To Go workspace.

You must be signed in as an administrator to be able to do the steps in this tutorial.


EXAMPLE: Host PC Drives Hidden and Unhidden in Windows To Go
NOTE: In both examples below, the Windows To Go USB flash drive is the C drive with the BitLocker lock on it.
​
Hidden-offline2.jpg​
​
Unhidden-online2.jpg​



Here's How:

1. While booted into the Windows To Go workspace USB flash drive, open the WIN+X Power Users Task menu, and click/tap on Disk Management. (see screenshot below)
NOTE: This must be done in the Windows To Go workspace. It will not work if done in the Windows 7 or Windows 8 host pc.
​
Unhide_drives_in_Windows_To_Go-1.jpg​

2. If prompted by UAC, click/tap on Yes.

3. Do step 4 or 5 below for what you would like to do.

4. To Hide a Host PC Hard Drive in Windows To Go
​
A) Right click or press and hold on a Disk # from the host PC that is online that you would like to hide, and click/tap on Offline. (see screenshot below step 5)​
​
B) After a moment, the disk will now be offline and hidden in the Computer window of Windows To Go.​

5. To Unhide a Host PC Hard Drive in Windows To Go
​
A) Right click or press and hold on a Disk # from the host PC that is offline that you would like to unhide, and click/tap on Online. (see screenshot below)​
​
Unhide_drives_in_Windows_To_Go-2A.jpg​
​
​
B) After a moment, the disk will now be online and available in the Computer window of Windows To Go. (see screenshot below)​
​
Unhide_drives_in_Windows_To_Go-3A.jpg​

6. When finished, you can close Disk Management if you like.


That's it,
Shawn


Related Tutorials

 

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Click to expand...
Works fine with Windows 10 D P Enterprise.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    ME, XP,Vista,Win7,Win8,Win8.1
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    Other Info
    Notebooks x 3

    Desktops x 5

    Towers x 4
Yeah, I'm finding most of what works on Windows 8 will also do so in 10 as well so far. :party:
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    64-bit Windows 10
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Custom self built
    CPU
    Intel i7-8700K OC'd to 5 GHz
    Motherboard
    ASUS ROG Maximus XI Formula Z390
    Memory
    64 GB (4x16GB) G.SKILL TridentZ RGB DDR4 3600 MHz (F4-3600C18D-32GTZR)
    Graphics Card(s)
    ASUS ROG-STRIX-GTX1080TI-O11G-GAMING
    Sound Card
    Integrated Digital Audio (S/PDIF)
    Monitor(s) Displays
    2 x Samsung Odyssey G7 27"
    Screen Resolution
    2560x1440
    Hard Drives
    1TB Samsung 990 PRO M.2,
    4TB Samsung 990 PRO PRO M.2,
    8TB WD MyCloudEX2Ultra NAS
    PSU
    OCZ Series Gold OCZZ1000M 1000W
    Case
    Thermaltake Core P3
    Cooling
    Corsair Hydro H115i
    Keyboard
    Logitech wireless K800
    Mouse
    Logitech MX Master 3
    Internet Speed
    1 Gb/s Download and 35 Mb/s Upload
    Browser
    Internet Explorer 11
    Antivirus
    Malwarebyte Anti-Malware Premium
    Other Info
    Logitech Z625 speaker system,
    Logitech BRIO 4K Pro webcam,
    HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M477fdn,
    APC SMART-UPS RT 1000 XL - SURT1000XLI,
    Galaxy S23 Plus phone
Should be called Windows 8.1.2.3. :D
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    ME, XP,Vista,Win7,Win8,Win8.1
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    Other Info
    Notebooks x 3

    Desktops x 5

    Towers x 4

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
    Computer type
    Tablet
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Dell Latitude e5500?
    CPU
    i7 - sandy bridge
    Memory
    4GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Intel HD 3000
    Browser
    IE 11 (Metro)
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender
Doesn't work for me :(. I can't see the option to hide or unhide my drives. Windows 8.1 :(.
following the instructions
Perhaps I'm in the wrong application? I'm using Disk Management on my desktop because drives that are shown as "online" are not appearing in explorer so I hoped that toggling the online offline might correct the issue.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    windows 8.1
Hello Gr11zzly,

You'll need to do this from within the Window To Go workspace instead of in the Windows on the host PC. :)
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    64-bit Windows 10
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Custom self built
    CPU
    Intel i7-8700K OC'd to 5 GHz
    Motherboard
    ASUS ROG Maximus XI Formula Z390
    Memory
    64 GB (4x16GB) G.SKILL TridentZ RGB DDR4 3600 MHz (F4-3600C18D-32GTZR)
    Graphics Card(s)
    ASUS ROG-STRIX-GTX1080TI-O11G-GAMING
    Sound Card
    Integrated Digital Audio (S/PDIF)
    Monitor(s) Displays
    2 x Samsung Odyssey G7 27"
    Screen Resolution
    2560x1440
    Hard Drives
    1TB Samsung 990 PRO M.2,
    4TB Samsung 990 PRO PRO M.2,
    8TB WD MyCloudEX2Ultra NAS
    PSU
    OCZ Series Gold OCZZ1000M 1000W
    Case
    Thermaltake Core P3
    Cooling
    Corsair Hydro H115i
    Keyboard
    Logitech wireless K800
    Mouse
    Logitech MX Master 3
    Internet Speed
    1 Gb/s Download and 35 Mb/s Upload
    Browser
    Internet Explorer 11
    Antivirus
    Malwarebyte Anti-Malware Premium
    Other Info
    Logitech Z625 speaker system,
    Logitech BRIO 4K Pro webcam,
    HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M477fdn,
    APC SMART-UPS RT 1000 XL - SURT1000XLI,
    Galaxy S23 Plus phone
Brink said:
Hello Gr11zzly,


You'll need to do this from within the Window To Go workspace instead of in the Windows on the host PC. :)
Click to expand...
Thanks for the clarification.
More research to find out what that is--probably wont solve my problem but I'll look
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    windows 8.1
It's while you're running Windows from the Windows To Go USB flash drive. :)
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    64-bit Windows 10
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Custom self built
    CPU
    Intel i7-8700K OC'd to 5 GHz
    Motherboard
    ASUS ROG Maximus XI Formula Z390
    Memory
    64 GB (4x16GB) G.SKILL TridentZ RGB DDR4 3600 MHz (F4-3600C18D-32GTZR)
    Graphics Card(s)
    ASUS ROG-STRIX-GTX1080TI-O11G-GAMING
    Sound Card
    Integrated Digital Audio (S/PDIF)
    Monitor(s) Displays
    2 x Samsung Odyssey G7 27"
    Screen Resolution
    2560x1440
    Hard Drives
    1TB Samsung 990 PRO M.2,
    4TB Samsung 990 PRO PRO M.2,
    8TB WD MyCloudEX2Ultra NAS
    PSU
    OCZ Series Gold OCZZ1000M 1000W
    Case
    Thermaltake Core P3
    Cooling
    Corsair Hydro H115i
    Keyboard
    Logitech wireless K800
    Mouse
    Logitech MX Master 3
    Internet Speed
    1 Gb/s Download and 35 Mb/s Upload
    Browser
    Internet Explorer 11
    Antivirus
    Malwarebyte Anti-Malware Premium
    Other Info
    Logitech Z625 speaker system,
    Logitech BRIO 4K Pro webcam,
    HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M477fdn,
    APC SMART-UPS RT 1000 XL - SURT1000XLI,
    Galaxy S23 Plus phone
If the Win-2-Go drive is "C:" what happens when you unhide the computer's C: drive?

For example: I have a computer with primary drive C: and secondary drive D: (both same size). I want to access files on the D: drive (in my case I can't boot to Windows because the primary drive C: has a bad boot sector). So I boot using the Win-2-Go , and go to Disk Management and see both drives, when I unhide them what drive letters will they have assigned (still C: and D:) or something else (since Win-2-Go is now Drive C:).

I assume the Win-2-Go will have drive C: assigned to it, as in your example (but maybe this is my error).
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Win8.1
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    HTPC: Custom built
    CPU
    intel i5-2400
    Motherboard
    Gigabyte GA-Z68MX-DS2H
    Memory
    16GB Corsair DDR3-1600
    Graphics Card(s)
    on-board HD3000
    Sound Card
    On-board
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Samsung 32" LED
    Hard Drives
    eight HGTS Deskstar NAS, 3TB
    seven WD Red NAS, 3TB
    one Seagate ES.2, 1TB
    one 64GB SSD
    PSU
    Corsair 750W
    Case
    Li-Lian case with SuperMicro hotswap backplane
    Cooling
    Case 4 6" fans, stock CPU cooler
    Other Info
    Two 3-Ware (LSI) model 9650SE-8LPML RAID cards.
It will have the host Windows drive as another drive letter than C.

Only the currently running Windows will have C. :)
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    64-bit Windows 10
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Custom self built
    CPU
    Intel i7-8700K OC'd to 5 GHz
    Motherboard
    ASUS ROG Maximus XI Formula Z390
    Memory
    64 GB (4x16GB) G.SKILL TridentZ RGB DDR4 3600 MHz (F4-3600C18D-32GTZR)
    Graphics Card(s)
    ASUS ROG-STRIX-GTX1080TI-O11G-GAMING
    Sound Card
    Integrated Digital Audio (S/PDIF)
    Monitor(s) Displays
    2 x Samsung Odyssey G7 27"
    Screen Resolution
    2560x1440
    Hard Drives
    1TB Samsung 990 PRO M.2,
    4TB Samsung 990 PRO PRO M.2,
    8TB WD MyCloudEX2Ultra NAS
    PSU
    OCZ Series Gold OCZZ1000M 1000W
    Case
    Thermaltake Core P3
    Cooling
    Corsair Hydro H115i
    Keyboard
    Logitech wireless K800
    Mouse
    Logitech MX Master 3
    Internet Speed
    1 Gb/s Download and 35 Mb/s Upload
    Browser
    Internet Explorer 11
    Antivirus
    Malwarebyte Anti-Malware Premium
    Other Info
    Logitech Z625 speaker system,
    Logitech BRIO 4K Pro webcam,
    HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M477fdn,
    APC SMART-UPS RT 1000 XL - SURT1000XLI,
    Galaxy S23 Plus phone
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