I've been using this process to hide my stuffs in my computer, its simple its easy and its FREE. no worries of any piracy etc... etc... Anyways who cares about piracy when you you are in India
following is the script. copy and paste it in notepad and save it as *.bat (a batch file).
For layman... name the file as "run.bat" and save it where you want your folder to be.
E.g.: if you want your protected folder to be in C:\ then save the file in C:\.
If you want your protected folder to be in D:\New Folder\ then save the file in D:\new Folder\
Note: paste the above code in notepad and go to Edit>>Replace... and replace "My_folder" with a folder name of your choice and "pwd123" with a password of your choice. If you use any new folder name which do not exist, it will create one.
How to use it...
To hide:
Run the .bat file, it will as to hide the folder (Y/N), press 'Y' if you want to hide the folder and its done
To Unhide:
Run the same file again, it will ask for the password. Put in the correct password and your folder again shows up.
Pros:
1) easy to use
2) hides the content completely i.e., even Show Hidden Folders option enabled cannot show the hidden folder nor Windows search can search the contents of this folder.
3) I never faced any data loss or anything.
4) even if you forget your password you can always recover it by reading the batch file you created.
Cons:
1) no encryption. therefore not advised for offices where data security is critical. In that case I suggest you to go for professional software.
2) Password can be hacked by any geek by reading the batch file.
3) It hides only 1 folder, for another folder you need another batch file.
I've been using this on windows7 since a long time and didnt had any problem. Would like you guys to try it in Windows XP and vista and report. hopefully you wont face any problem there as well.
NOTE: Only good for hiding your personel stuffs from your fren, parents,, boss etc... hehehehe