How to Hide Partition Icons From Your Ubuntu Desktop

Ubuntu will place icons for other partitions on your desktop. Would you like a clean desktop, or just don't always need access those other partitions? Changing a value in the GNOME Configuration Editor will stop partitions from being displayed on your desktop.

Press Alt-F2 to bring up the Run Application dialog. Type gconf-editor and click Run.

In the left panel of the window, browse to apps->nautilus->desktop. Unchecked the volumes_visible option and the partitions on your desktop will disappear. Also if you like to add Computer, Home, Network and Trash icon to your desktop just check the computer_icon_visible, home_icon_visible, network_icon_visible and trash_icon_visible.

It's possible if you like to keep shortcuts to some partitions but not others! It's simple, just follow the other directions and then can create you own launchers for the partitions you want. Right click on the desktop and click on create launcher, in the type drop down box select location. Then you can give the launcher a name and the location you want to link to. If you would like to chose a custom icon you can find the hard drive icon in this path:

/usr/share/icons/gnome/scalabe/devices/