Unhide drive on Windows 8.1

[leftisthominid]

Crappy DRM from a USB stick from Xenoblade Chronicles X has hidden any access to the Y drive. I don't have one, but I don't like that it has been locked off

I found a fix, but they say it is specific to Windows 8.1

It mounts the encrypted folder on the Y drive, then edits the group policy for your computer to block system access to the drive, then edits the registry to hide the drive....

It does not revert these changes.

You will not be able to use the Y drive letter until you revert changes, and considering lots of enterprises use Z,Y,X and whatnot for mapped network drives, don't try listening to this at work.

To revert (for Win7x64):

1) (Gain access to Y again) Use gpedit.msc and set this to disabled then back to not configured (you can't see what it did and it says "not configured" because it did it in the registry only): https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc978514.aspx

https://i.imgur.com/CB5vqZi.png

2) Unhide Y

Use regedit and delete this key (or set it to 0, but it doesn't exist by default): https://i.imgur.com/26Q5W1E.png

If you're curious what it did, look here: http://www.pctools.com/guides/registry/detail/148/

It's a bitmask, and it hides the Y drive.

(https://www.reddit.com/r/Xenoblade_Chronicles/comments/3vikin/warning_the_xenoblade_chronicles_x_ost_has_a/)

I did step 1 before I realized that this is for Win 7, not Win 8.1. I was wondering whether the registry edit method works for Win 8.1 as well.

NoDrives in the registry is currently set to 2000000 (that is in hex).

This is a custom-built computer. I don't think I have any recovery partition, unless Windows made one without telling me.

 

[Solandri]

Have you tried system restore?

 

[leftisthominid]

I am not going to do a system restore. I don't think it will address the problem. No program was actually installed, and this is not grave enough to do something like that.

 

[Solandri]

I am not going to do a system restore. I don't think it will address the problem. No program was actually installed, and this is not grave enough to do something like that.

System restore will reverse registry changes.

 

[leftisthominid]

I can't do a system restore. I have multiple program installations since my last restore point.

 

[Chicano]

It should apply to Windows 8.1 as well.. To revert the setting you can either change the value data or delete the DWORD value. If the DWORD value "NoDrives" does not exist by default, create it and mark it's data field with 0.


http://www.pctools.com/guides/registry/detail/148/

User Key: [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\
Explorer]
System Key: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\
Explorer]
Value Name: NoDrives
Data Type: REG_DWORD (DWORD Value)

 

[leftisthominid]

It should apply to Windows 8.1 as well.. To revert the setting you can either change the value data or delete the DWORD value. If the DWORD value "NoDrives" does not exist by default, create it and mark it's data field with 0.


http://www.pctools.com/guides/registry/detail/148/

User Key: [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\
Explorer]
System Key: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\
Explorer]
Value Name: NoDrives
Data Type: REG_DWORD (DWORD Value)

Thanks! It just seems weird to me that it hid Z instead of Y. (My NoDrives was set to Z based on that hex)

 

[Chicano]

Apparently what you did was disable AutoRun instead of hiding the drive. If you create any DWORD value (to test and delete) and edit it with 2000000 hexadecimal or Binary value 33554432, this data disables autorun in Drive Z... which would hold it from appearing in Explorer. To prevent autorun or "hide" letter Y, use code 16777216;0x01000000 to edit the DWORD registry value.

Check this page...
Using the Registry to Disable AutoRun
http://users.telenet.be/ghislaine.de.vos1/autorun.html
"Z;33554432;0x2000000"

And to hide a specific USB stick you can manually assign it a drive letter in Disk Manager.. and that letter will only open that particular USB stick. That means that when you insert another stick, it will open with another drive letter. You would have to rename all sticks the same with a preferred default name, for every stick to open in the same letter automatically.

Theres a specific code in the users.telnet page to prevent from opening any drive letter.. and if you assign a drive letter for all USB sticks, that will prevent them from opening in Explorer, (same as hiding them)... though you may still be able to access them by other means like typing the drive letter in the Explorer Navigation Panel.

 

[leftisthominid]

Apparently what you did was disable AutoRun instead of hiding the drive. If you create any DWORD value (to test and delete) and edit it with 2000000 hexadecimal or Binary value 33554432, this data disables autorun in Drive Z... which would hold it from appearing in Explorer. To prevent autorun or "hide" letter Y, use code 16777216;0x01000000 to edit the DWORD registry value.

Check this page...
Using the Registry to Disable AutoRun
http://users.telenet.be/ghislaine.de.vos1/autorun.html
"Z;33554432;0x2000000"

And to hide a specific USB stick you can manually assign it a drive letter in Disk Manager.. and that letter will only open that particular USB stick. That means that when you insert another stick, it will open with another drive letter. You would have to rename all sticks the same with a preferred default name, for every stick to open in the same letter automatically.

Theres a specific code in the users.telnet page to prevent from opening any drive letter.. and if you assign a drive letter for all USB sticks, that will prevent them from opening in Explorer, (same as hiding them)... though you may still be able to access them by other means like typing the drive letter in the Explorer Navigation Panel.

I didn't make any to 0x02000000 myself. An extremely DRM'ed USB drive set it to that. I've put the USB stick away. Based on some info from Reddit, it seems the drive locks Y (0x01000000) for Win7 and Z for Win8.1.

I've done the gpedit.msc thing described above and NoDrives is set to 0. I don't want anything hidden or any autorun disabled. Is there anything else I should do, or am I good?

I just plugged in my passport drive, and it autoran as E/F as one would expect.

 

[Chicano]

No, there's nothing else to do.. as long as you don't use the DRM'd USB drive, or don't mind losing drive letter Z and repeating it's recovery...