Many Mac users have installed Windows on their Macs with the help of Boot Camp Assistant software from Apple to get access to games and software that are exclusively available for Windows 1o/8/7.
Users who have installed recent versions of Windows on Mac via Boot Camp probably have noticed that Macintosh drive appears in Windows Explorer (File Explorer). While Windows can read files on your Macintosh HD, it can’t write files to Mac’s HFS drive. So even though the Macintosh drive that appears in Windows Explorer is useful to quickly access files on your Mac drive, you can’t move file to that drive from Windows because of the above mentioned limitation.
As you probably know, the Macintosh HD appears in Windows only if you have installed all Boot Camp drivers, especially the HFS+ drivers.
If for some reason, you want to hide the Macintosh HD partition in Windows Explorer, you can use one of two methods mentioned below. Please note that both methods only hide the Macintosh HD or partition in Windows File Explorer, and don’t delete the drive. Macintosh HD drive will continue to appear in Disk Management tool.
Method 1 of 2
Hiding Macintosh HD drive using Windows Disk Management.
Step 1: Turn on your Mac and boot into Windows. Open Run dialog box by simultaneously pressing Windows logo + R keys. Type Diskmgmt.msc in the box and then press Enter key to open Disk Management.
Step 2: In the Disk Management, identify your Mac partition. You can quickly identify the Mac partition as it’s a HFS partition.
Step 3: Right-click on the Mac partition and then click Change Drive Letter and Paths.
Step 4: Once the Change Drive Letter and Paths dialog is opened, select the drive letter of your Mac drive (if it’s not selected by default) and then click the Remove button to stop Macintosh HD drive from appearing in Windows Explorer. For those who are curious, Windows Explorer doesn’t show partitions or drives that don’t have a valid drive letter.
Click on the Yes button when you see the confirmation dialog.
To show Macintosh HD drive again in Windows Explorer, open Disk Management, right-click on the Mac drive, click Change Drive Letter and Paths, click Add button, select a drive letter for the partition, and then click Ok button. That’s it!
Method 2
Hiding Macintosh HD drive in Windows Explorer using NoDrives Manager.
Step 1: Head over to the developer’s page and download NoDrives Manager. You can either download the setup of the software and then install, or simply download the portable version which requires no installation.
Step 2: Run NoDrives Manager. Select your Macintosh HD’s drive letter (as it appears in Windows Explorer).
Step 3: Click Save Changes button to see “Settings successfully changed. You need to log off and log on again or restart the explorer.exe process in order to see the changes.
Either login or log off or restart Windows Explorer via Task Manager to hide Macintosh HD drive. To show the drive again in Windows Explorer, run the same program, uncheck the drive letter and then click Save changes button. That’s it! Good luck!
You can also use Command Prompt to hide a drive or partition in Windows.
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