Devices Take Offline or Bring Online a Disk Drive in Windows 11

This tutorial will show you how to change an internal disk drive status to offline or online as needed in Windows 10 and Windows 11.

By default, all newly discovered disks are brought online with read and write access.

When you take a disk offline, it is removed from "This PC" in File Explorer, and becomes unmountable and inaccessible (even after a restart) until you bring it back online. You also cannot initialize a disk or create volumes/partitions on a disk until it's online.

Taking a disk offline does not turn off the disk, but it will still use your Turn off hard disk after setting in Power Options.

Taking a disk offline can be a handy way to effectively remove the disk as needed without having to physically remove the disk.

Reference:

You must be signed in as an administrator to take a disk offline or bring a disk online.

The Windows disk cannot be taken offline.

Removable media cannot be taken offline. They can be ejected or disconnected instead.

This option is only available in Windows 11.

1 Open Settings (Win+I).

2 Click/tap on System on the left side, and click/tap on Storage on the right side. (see screenshot below)



3 Click/tap on Yes if prompted by UAC.

Starting with Windows 11 build 26100.7705 (24H2) and build 26200.7705 (25H2), to help ensure that only authorized Windows users can access system files, Windows now displays a User Account Control (UAC) prompt when you open Storage settings (Settings > System > Storage).

Starting with Windows 11 build 26100.8514 (RP 24H2), and build 26200.8514 (RP 25H2), Microsoft updated Settings > System > Storage, so rather than seeing a UAC prompt immediately when you go to the page, you’ll only see it when going to view temporary files.

4 Click/tap on Advanced storage settings to expand it open, and click/tap on Disks & volumes. (see screenshot below)



5 Click/tap on the Properties button for the internal "disk" you want to either "Take offline" or "Bring online". (see screenshot below)


6 Under Status, click/tap on the Take offline or Bring online button. (see screenshot below)


7 You can now close Settings if you like.





1 Open Disk Management (diskmgmt.msc).

2 In the bottom pane, right click on a disk label on the left side of the internal disk you want to either "Take offline" or "Bring online". (see screenshots below)

3 Click/tap on Offline or Online.

4 You can now close Disk Management if you like.







1 Open Windows Terminal (Admin), and select Command Prompt.

2 Copy and paste the command below into Windows Terminal (Admin), and press Enter. (see screenshot below)


3 Copy and paste the command below into Windows Terminal (Admin), and press Enter.


4 Make note of the Disk ### (ex: "0") for the internal disk you want to either "Take offline" or "Bring online".

5 Type the command below into Windows Terminal (Admin), and press Enter.

Substitute <number> in the command above for the actual disk number (ex: "0") from step 4.

For example: select disk 0

6 Copy and paste the command below you want to use into Windows Terminal (Admin), and press Enter.




7 You can now close Windows Terminal (Admin) if you like.







1 Open Windows Terminal (Admin), and select Windows PowerShell.

2 Copy and paste the command below into Windows Terminal (Admin), and press Enter. (see screenshot below step 3)


3 Make note of the disk Number (ex: "0") for the internal disk you want to either "Take offline" or "Bring online". (see screenshot below)

The OperationalStatus column will let you know if each disk is currently Online or Offline.

4 Type the command below you want to use into Windows Terminal (Admin), and press Enter. (see screenshots below)

Substitute <number> in the command above for the actual disk number (ex: "0") from step 3.

For example: set-disk 0 -isOffline $true

OR

set-disk 0 -isOffline $false

5 You can now close Windows Terminal (Admin) if you like.






That's it,
Shawn Brink