Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!samsung!usc!ucsd!nosc!cod!bmarsh
From: bmarsh@cod.NOSC.MIL (William C. Marsh)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Hidden subdirectories??
Message-ID: <1947@cod.NOSC.MIL>
Date: 8 Jun 90 19:15:18 GMT
References: <6350.266e60ce@jetson.uh.edu>
Reply-To: bmarsh@cod.nosc.mil.UUCP (William C. Marsh)
Organization: Naval Ocean Systems Center, San Diego
Lines: 28

In article <6350.266e60ce@jetson.uh.edu> bchs1b@jetson.uh.edu writes:
>Is there any way to change the attribute on a directory or subdirectory
>so that it is hidden? I would like a subdirectory not to appear when
>someone is casually looking at the disk, but if you CD to the subdirectory
>then all the files will be visible. 

Yes, there is a simple solution, but the implementation is a little hard.
All you have to do is set the Hidden bit in the directory entry for the
directory itself.  However, you will need to use NU or some other sector
editor to set the bit.  It does work, as my computer at home has a 'secret'
directory on it... (And it doesn't even mess up chkdsk either :-)

You have to go into the parent directory of the sub-directory to find the
entry with the subdirectory name in it.  Each directory entry is 32 bytes
long, and the first 11 bytes is the file (or subdirectory) name.  The 12th
byte is the attribute byte.  For a normal subdirectory, it should have a
10h in it.  You need to change it to 12h to hide the subdirectory.

To un-hide the directory, change the 12h back to a 10h.

Hope this helps!

Bill
-- 
Bill Marsh, Naval Ocean Systems Center, San Diego, CA
{arpa,mil}net: bmarsh@cod.nosc.mil
uucp: {ihnp4,akgua,decvax,dcdwest,ucbvax}!sdcsvax!nosc!bmarsh
"If everything seems to be coming your way, you're probably in the wrong lane."