[SOLVED] will disabled hard drives stay disabled(device manager)?

[Pc6777]

so I set up my computer to be dual boot(at bios level). I have 2 boot SSDs with windows that have/don't have access to certain hard drives. I disabled certain drives in both of my windows installs in device manager and also made it so the c/boot drives cant see each other. will windows ever randomly reenable the disabled drives because an update or something and mess up my separation between drives/boots or will it stay like this indefinitely? on one of the boots I have a normal windows install with a Microsoft account and internet, and the other one I have a windows install with as local account with defender permanently disabled in group policy, and all network access disabled and lots of built in windows stuff disabled/removed for offline/privacy use cases. is there a better way to do this?

 

[hang-the-9]

They should not, but simple to test. Do it, see what happens after an update.

 

[punkncat]

You might consider a SATA power switch. It allows you to cut power to specific SATA devices at the push of a button.
Some refer to it as a HDD power controller,

 

[Pc6777]

They should not, but simple to test. Do it, see what happens after an update.

I was thinking that, but I'm fully up to date, installed 20h2 on both c drives.

 

[Pc6777]

You might consider a SATA power switch. It allows you to cut power to specific SATA devices at the push of a button.
Some refer to it as a HDD power controller,

seems like a good idea, but could that kill an ssd or harm an hdd? I know ssds don't play well with random power outages.

 

[USAFRet]

seems like a good idea, but could that kill an ssd or harm an hdd? I know ssds don't play well with random power outages.

Since you'd be rebooting during swapping to the different OS, flip the switch when the power is off.

 

[Pc6777]

Since you'd be rebooting during swapping to the different OS, flip the switch when the power is off.

yes, they are pretty cheap on ebay, might get one to try out, I was also thinking i could encrypt the drives so if the other system undo's my disable it cant actually see what's inside the drive. I would rather not have to do that and just leave them disabled, but if I ever run into a problem I will need to step up security/separation.

 

[Pc6777]

They should not, but simple to test. Do it, see what happens after an update.

I found an update actually and updated, I don't think it was a full feature update, but afterword's the drives stayed disabled, I might do some sort of light encryption/file lock just in case tho to keep my data/online and offline boot and drives separated from one another.

 

[Karadjgne]

Normally I'd say there's be no problems, your personal settings as to what drives are/aren't visible etc should never change. That said, every so often Microsoft does a major Windows update and that's where stuff gets funky.

I turned off Xbox, game helper bar, hibernation, Windows store, Cortana and a bunch of other stuff that's either useless or never used/needed. Went through multiple updates, no worries. Then got hit by the 1809 to 1903 update, and all that stuff got turned back on, every single one of them. Basically windows deemed that major update as a return to default settings update.

I'm assuming windows did that to verify system file and/or startup drivers packages etc.

So whether or not your privacy drives are maintained, or those switches reverted to default 'show all' is anybodys guess when it involves the periodic major updates that basically reinstall windows or most of it.

Only thing you can do is go through the update, then go check the results yourself.

 

[Pc6777]

Normally I'd say there's be no problems, your personal settings as to what drives are/aren't visible etc should never change. That said, every so often Microsoft does a major Windows update and that's where stuff gets funky.

I turned off Xbox, game helper bar, hibernation, Windows store, Cortana and a bunch of other stuff that's either useless or never used/needed. Went through multiple updates, no worries. Then got hit by the 1809 to 1903 update, and all that stuff got turned back on, every single one of them. Basically windows deemed that major update as a return to default settings update.

I'm assuming windows did that to verify system file and/or startup drivers packages etc.

So whether or not your privacy drives are maintained, or those switches reverted to default 'show all' is anybodys guess when it involves the periodic major updates that basically reinstall windows or most of it.

Only thing you can do is go through the update, then go check the results yourself.

I could disable automatic updates in gpedit on my online install, and only install manually so windows cant force one on me and destroy my privacy, this way I can control it. im worried if I encrypt my drives it will slow them down, is there some sort of encryption(not bitlocker) that's very lite, just good enough to have my files private from my other install just in case. or is there a way to make these drives unreadable/unrecognizable from my other install?

 

[Pc6777]

I found a way to block certain devices in gpedit, I just need to get the device ids, how do I find device id?

 

[Karadjgne]

Should be in the device properties tab.

 

[Pc6777]

Normally I'd say there's be no problems, your personal settings as to what drives are/aren't visible etc should never change. That said, every so often Microsoft does a major Windows update and that's where stuff gets funky.

I turned off Xbox, game helper bar, hibernation, Windows store, Cortana and a bunch of other stuff that's either useless or never used/needed. Went through multiple updates, no worries. Then got hit by the 1809 to 1903 update, and all that stuff got turned back on, every single one of them. Basically windows deemed that major update as a return to default settings update.

I'm assuming windows did that to verify system file and/or startup drivers packages etc.

So whether or not your privacy drives are maintained, or those switches reverted to default 'show all' is anybodys guess when it involves the periodic major updates that basically reinstall windows or most of it.

Only thing you can do is go through the update, then go check the results yourself.

I was able to find the device ids, and block those devices from ever installing in gpedit, I did a test, I cut internet, the reenabled the drives in device manager, and in disk manager they were set to offline, so if something happens to my disabled device list, my gpedit block is my fallback and those drives will remain offline(not disabled, but offline, which is good enough as a fallback), i doubt a windows update would ever effect a list of blocked devices in gpedit so i think im good.

 

[Pc6777]

Should be in the device properties tab.

found it