An Old Topic Revisited

[odos]

One complaint I’ve always had with UEFI and GPT is the fact that there is no TRUE hiding of partitions normally possible. For this reason I have reverted back from UEFI to Legacy on my machine. After some casual browsing online I stumbled across a Boot Manager that does allow TRUE hiding of GPT partitions in it’s newer paid for versions.

An excerpt from that Boot Managers documentation---

True hidden partition:
Starting with ******** version 3.7.0 the MBR method for true hiding a partition can be applied also to GPT partitions of type Microsoft basic data. Here again the boot sector and the end sector (if necessary) are changed which prevents Windows from recognizing the file system of the true hidden partition. As a consequence the partition is not anymore accessible by Windows. The change of the boot and end sector can be easily reverted which makes the partition accessible again.

So my question is this, will Terabyte be offering the same option in Bootit for the TRUE hiding of GPT Partitions in the near future?

Thanks
Odos

[TeraByte Support]

That's NOT TRUE hiding. Removing the partition from the GPT would be true hiding (like removing from MBR that BIBM does), but it's not needed since you can already hide the partition from Windows without worrying about overwriting the location of the partition or that the partition appears unformatted (perhaps sparking an automatic format someday). Long ago considering changing the boot sector/super block as a form of hiding was thought about and quickly and easily dismissed though experience as too much of a potential problem. Instead, you can use the hide option on the boot item (which prevents Windows from knowing the type of partition) or the GPT partition entry bits that Windows supports.

[odos]

Okay, thanks for the reply and explanation.

Looks like I'll be sticking with Legacy for some years yet or until someone comes up with a way to truly hide GPT partitions like Bootit does with MBR.

Thanks again
Odos

[TeraByte Support]

But there is no need to, it's already there.

[odos]

i'm sorry I should have made it clear to begin with, I don't use exclusively Windows. I use Windows 11, 10, 8.1 AND Linux Mint.

At the risk of confirming my ignorance here, I understand the hide option but not which GPT partition entry bits I should be using, could you explain please?

Thanks
Odos

[Brian K]

Odos,

I use the same OS selections. When you choose Hide for a NTFS partition you change the GPT Partition Type from Normal Data to BootIt Hidden.

[odos]

Thanks for the reply Brian, I follow the Hide option setting the partition type to BootIt Hidden by changing certain GPT partition bits as to the partition type but in the reply from TeraByte it was stated,

you can use the hide option on the boot item or the GPT partition entry bits that Windows supports.

It's the OR in the middle of that statement which puzzles me. Does it mean that using the Hide option does the same as manually altering partition bits and this is the only way to hide partitions or does it mean you can change some other partition bits that Windows supports to achieve the same effect?