Location switch hard drive shim

A program product, method and an apparatus is disclosed to quickly and easily hide and expose and store and retrieve locally stored data. A location switch is employed in controlling the visibility and usability of files stored on a hard disk or other storage device included in the apparatus. A user selects from a plurality of location modes. Based on a selected location, files become visible and accessible or hidden and inaccessible. The files can be encrypted/decrypted on the disk and the encryption/decryption can be done in a transparent manner. The cryptology functions can also be tied to a cryptographic processor if one is available in the system.