Want to dual boot Windows 10 and Windows 10 but don't want the other Windows 10 to access other drives.

[azraf_alam]

I have Windows 10 Pro running on my SSD and I booted a Pen-drive with Windows 10 Home. I don't want Windows 10 home to access other drives on my PC. Is there any way to block access to other drives without unplugging the drives physically?

[Levent]

Not really. Using a VM makes more sense for that.

[Murasaki]

Yes, you can disable the drives through Device Manager.

[azraf_alam]

10 minutes ago, Levent said:

Not really. Using a VM makes more sense for that.

Well I am doing this basically for part time mining when I am not around my pc...or doing it so i can use discord side by side of mining. Will using vm affect speed of the system much?

[Lurick]

You could encrypt them with bitlocker and not enter the password on the Home install to unlock them.

[Levent]

Just now, azraf_alam said:

Well I am doing this basically for part time mining when I am not around my pc...or doing it so i can use discord side by side of mining. Will using vm affect speed of the system much?

It gets slightly more complicated when you want to dedicate graphics cards to VMs. I would just do what you are doing right now, if you are worried about your disks, the easiest secure way to have no access to them in OS would be disabling them in BIOS.

[azraf_alam]

12 minutes ago, Murasaki said:

Yes, you can disable the drives through Device Manager.

Umm but how? I want to keep using all the drives from Windows 10 pro but not from Windows 10 Home. Will disabling from the disable the drives from both os?

 

[azraf_alam]

1 minute ago, Lurick said:

You could encrypt them with bitlocker and not enter the password on the Home install to unlock them.

But it will be a pain when I am on Windows 10 Pro for gaming and stuff...Ik I can encrypt but when I will lauch a game from steam from my main os, I will have to give pass each and every time..

 

[Lurick]

Just now, azraf_alam said:

But it will be a pain when I am on Windows 10 Pro for gaming and stuff...Ik I can encrypt but when I will lauch a game from steam from my main os, I will have to give pass each and every time..

 

No, you can unlock the drives for that OS by default. I have secondary drives encrypted and they unlock when I login.

[Murasaki]

3 minutes ago, azraf_alam said:

Will disabling from the disable the drives from both os?

No it won't. On your Win10 Pro you leave everything as is and on your Win10 Home installation you just disable the drives you dont want to be "seen" by Windows.

[azraf_alam]

3 minutes ago, Levent said:

It gets slightly more complicated when you want to dedicate graphics cards to VMs. I would just do what you are doing right now, if you are worried about your disks, the easiest secure way to have no access to them in OS would be disabling them in BIOS.

Yeah thats a way to do that but every time I boot Windows 10 Pro from my ssd, I will have to re-enable the drives. I am just looking for a way so that Windows 10 Home wont detect the drives while its booted without this much complication

[azraf_alam]

1 minute ago, Murasaki said:

No it won't. On your Win10 Pro you leave everything as is and on your Win10 Home installation you just disable the drives you dont want to be "seen" by Windows.

Sorry to bother you but will you give me a quick tutorial how to do this?

[Levent]

Just now, azraf_alam said:

Yeah thats a way to do that but every time I boot Windows 10 Pro from my ssd, I will have to re-enable the drives. I am just looking for a way so that Windows 10 Home wont detect the drives while its booted without this much complication

You can have setup multiple BIOS profiles (sometimes even called overclocking profiles) with to be used with your regular W10 install (that has all the drives enabled) and one with only your mining OS with no other storage devices. If you have a desktop motherboard from last 10 years you most likely can do that.

[azraf_alam]

1 minute ago, Levent said:

You can have setup multiple BIOS profiles (sometimes even called overclocking profiles) with to be used with your regular W10 install (that has all the drives enabled) and one with only your mining OS with no other storage devices. If you have a desktop motherboard from last 10 years you most likely can do that.

My one is ASUS ROG STRIX B-450-F Gaming. Will I be able to do this?

 

[Levent]

Just now, azraf_alam said:

My one is ASUS ROG STRIX B-450-F Gaming. Will I be able to do this?

 

Most likely check your BIOS.

[Murasaki]

1 minute ago, azraf_alam said:

Sorry to bother you but will you give me a quick tutorial how to do this?

You type "devmgmt" while on the start menu and in Device manager disable whichever drives you want under "Disk Drives"

[azraf_alam]

Just now, Murasaki said:

You type "devmgmt" while on the start menu and in Device manager disable whichever drives you want under "Disk Drives"

Oh this way. But, I have a question regarding it. I am going to use windows 10 home basically for part time mining. So if I disable using this process and if by any chance I have a backdoor in windows 10 home os, Will it be able to enable the drives? The miner plugins are malicious most of the times.

[Murasaki]

1 minute ago, azraf_alam said:

Oh this way. But, I have a question regarding it. I am going to use windows 10 home basically for part time mining. So if I disable using this process and if by any chance I have a backdoor in windows 10 home os, Will it be able to enable the drives? The miner plugins are malicious most of the times.

What! I have no clue thats unfamiliar territory to me.

[azraf_alam]

1 minute ago, Murasaki said:

What! I have no clue thats unfamiliar territory to me.

Anyway thanks. You were very helpful.

 

[Murasaki]

1 minute ago, azraf_alam said:

Anyway thanks. You were very helpful.

Happy to help. Though now I understand why you want to keep this installation strictly seperate from your main. There are chances Windows might reset these settings on updates so I would go with other's suggestions for VM or BIOS settings.