Blocking Access to Hidden Specified Drives in Windows XP

As a computer user of a unit, you don't want colleagues to use your computer, or a file on a drive does not want colleagues to see it, then the following Introducing two ways to block access or hide specified drives in WinXP may be useful to you.

Using WinXP "Group Policy" to block access to the specified drive

Click "Start → Run", enter "gpedit.msc" in the pop-up "Run" dialog box to open " Group Policy". On the left side of the window, open "User Configuration → Administrative Templates → Windows Components → Windows Explorer". In the right window, the setting item "Prevent access to the drive from ‘My Computer'” will appear. Double-click on the setting item and select the "Enabled" option in the "Prevent access to drive properties from My Computer" dialog box. Select from the drop-down list below "Select one of the following combinations" below. One drive or several drives. Click "OK". This way other users will not be able to view the contents of the drive you want to block in My Computer or Explorer. The icons for these blocked drives will still appear in My Computer or Explorer, but if the user double-clicks the icon or enters the drive letter of the drive that is blocked from access in the Run dialog box and clicks "OK" will pop up a dialog box prompting "This operation was cancelled due to the limitations of this computer. Please contact your system administrator" to prevent this operation.

Tip: If you are allowed to access all drive directories, set this setting to "Disabled" or "Not Configured" or select the "Unlimited Drives" option from the drop-down list.

Once this policy is enabled, users can continue to access the contents of these blocked drives by using other means. For example, type C: in the Command Prompt window (assuming the C drive is configured to block access), then press Enter, then enter dir/p/w (/p for page display, /w for five files per line or Folder), you can browse the C drive. In addition, this policy will not prevent users from using other programs to access these blocked access drives or their contents, such as WinDisk's own "disk cleaning" and "disk defragmenter". It also does not prevent users from using Disk Management (Control Panel → Administrative Tools → Computer Management Shortcuts, Open Computer Management, then Storage → Disk Management) to view and change the characteristics of these blocked access drives.