Yes, I was referring to how to remove the partition from the booted OS's Explorer seeing it's files which is what OP's have wanted in the past. I'm pretty sure this is how to do it but I'm also running on fumes after reimaging a laptop to a desktop overnight.
Remember that this is to hide the other OS's drive letter in Disk Management. You cannot remove or change the booted OS's drive letter or it will ruin it.
OK, Explorer is another story. I was not sure to what level he wanted to go with the secrecy.
Probably to keep the boss out of his personal life.
Idea is that I travel a lot, and I have a working laptop that I should always keep after me. For simplifying things, I have just taken the HDD of my home laptop, reinstall the windows with the job laptop drivers, and use it like this.
The Windows installed from work have some sort of tracing software, and registers everything that is inserted (USB, CDs, Other HDDs, etc) and than reports via internet. I have no idea if it has also a type of autorun that launches the same software when I'm inserting the HDD in another computer, as slave hard disk. This is why I need the HDDs to function independently, and not to be seen by each other.
To my question at the IT guy: and if I use a Live Boot CD with Linux, or anything, to use the computer without booting and using the work HDD, and use an external HDD, the answer was fast: I wouldn't try!
So, this is why I asked, how can I set from bios/dos the HDDs to be hidden of each other under windows. If it's possible.
I can enter and change each time the boot sequence. Is easier than using a screwdriver each day and night.
If both win partitions ar set as Primary and Active, would I have a chance to don't see the other operating system partition?
EDIT: Never mind, didn't read "laptop" in OP.
Last edited by traderpats; 28 Jan 2012 at 01:40. Reason: Formating
I think your IT guy gave you a wrong answer. If the Office OS is not active (because you use a live CD or because you use your private OS), I do not see how anything can be sent upstream. There is just no program there to do it.
Dual booting by swapping the cables is so far out there I've never even heard of it here after helping with thousands of Dual Boots..
We occasionally have Users enter BIOS setup to manually change the HD booted first, but then we remind them that nearly every computer and mobo make have a one-time BIOS Boot Menu key that can be used to override the boot order.
They are right up above in this thread, but I'll post them again for you:
Asus - F8
HP/Compaq - Esc
Sony - F2
Acer - F12
Gateway - F10
eMachnes - F10
Toshiba - F12
Dell - F12
IBM/Lenovo - the blue Thinkvantage button
I have heard of no issues between the OS's when they are on separate HD's booted via the BIOS.
Alternatively, Windows (AFAIK) only recognizes the FAT and NTFS filesystems. I have a second HDD in my computer with Linux Mint on it, formatted EXT4, and my Windows 7 install doesn't see the drive at all. When running the Linux install, though, all the installed hardware is visible, but I can choose whether it's mounted at boot or not.
Windows is able to interact with EXT* filesystems (among others), but only after installing third-party software such as explore2fs. How you would go about installing Windows, converting the filesystem to EXT*, and then installing the needed emulator and getting it to run at the correct time in the boot sequence would be entirely up to you.
As far as keeping either drive hidden from the BIOS boot menu, that would be quite impossible unless you can install a switch in-line to deactivate the device (power switch?) you didn't want to use at the time. It's that, or physically swap the devices whenever you want to switch. Or learn to code and write your own BIOS. Or stop using your work computer for activities that you know your employer would not approve of.
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