Ever wished you could snuffle away certain files, documents, or pictures on your computer so they were completely hidden? Privacy Drive is a simple and effective piece software for doing exactly that, allowing you to create virtual disks in which to store encrypted data.

Keep private files private

Whether you want to hide private photos, videos, business documents, or sensitive files, Privacy Drive lets you tuck them away with minimal fuss.

The software boasts Virtual Disk and “On-the-fly” Disk Encryption Technology. You can create virtual disks that appear in the Windows file explorer like a normal drive, allowing you to drag and drop files or folders that you want to hide. As soon as you dismount the virtual disk, Privacy Drive will immediately protect your privacy, applying industry standard AES 128-bit and 256-bit encryption algorithms to every file within the volume.

One of the great things about protecting data with Privacy Drive is that the encrypted files are easily transferable and transportable. All files are stored in a virtual disk file (in a format called 'PDV'). You can then save this disk to an external drive, upload it to cloud storage, burn it to DVD, etc. so you can open it again on another computer using Privacy Drive, safe in the knowledge that all the stored files are encrypted the whole time.

Other advantages of Privacy Drive include the fact that the encrypted volumes are masked, containing no signatures that would reveal that they are indeed encrypted.

Another big plus is that Privacy Drive is very fast. I was pleasantly surprised that files can be saved to the virtual disk instantly. The on-the-fly nature of the software means that the data is only decrypted once it is accessed.

How to use Privacy Drive

Although the Privacy Drive user interface isn’t very modern looking, it serves its purpose well enough. When you launch the application you’re given the option to create a new virtual disk drive, or open an existing one.

Creating a drive is as simple as entering a name and description, defining the volume size, then setting a password for it. Advanced options include the ability to change the type of encryption algorithm, and to set the drive letter. You can choose to mount the virtual drive as a hard disk or as a removable disk.

To mount a private drive that you’ve created, you just need to select it from the favorites panel and hit the Mount button. You’ll be prompted to enter the password and once you’ve done that the drive will be visible in the Windows file explorer.

To dismount a drive (i.e. to make it invisible from view in Windows), you simply highlight it in the favorites panel and hit the Dismount icon. There’s a Dismount All button for quickly shutting down all visible drives.

Play it safe

Privacy Drive offers a fast and simple way to keep your personal files safe from prying eyes. It’s well worth installing if you have lots of sensitive information on your computer.