Protecting a drive from Formatting ?

budwieser · 21-07-2005, 22:20

How do i Password Protect a Hard-Drive to stop someone from Formatting it or Deleting any of the files on it?

Strzelecki · 21-07-2005, 22:27

Not sure whether this is possible, you can encrypt files, password protect them and make them undeleteable in windows but I don't think you could stop someone low level formatting your drive without some special hardware in between.

MovedGoalPosts · 21-07-2005, 22:34

In the modern OS systems, especially Windows Pro versions, you can assign user rights to certain folders. If you have administrator, and others are just users, then correct use of the user rights will prevent them either gaining total access to a folder, or just allowing them read only access.

Never tried it (I don't really need to spend time reloading my PC if it doesn't work

), but I would hope you need admin rights on the Win XP based systems to allow a format command to run. Of course if someone knows how to reboot and enter command mode, they will probably bypass that. All you are doing is stopping accidental erasure by prying fingers.

21-07-2005, 22:36

Quote:

Originally Posted by Strzelecki

Not sure whether this is possible, you can encrypt files, password protect them and make them undeleteable in windows but I don't think you could stop someone low level formatting your drive without some special hardware in between.

absolutely - just booting to a floppy would be able to override any fancy stuff, sounds like you need an external removeable hard drive & somewhere to hide it

budwieser · 21-07-2005, 22:47

Hmmmmm! Just want to make sure that the students don`t delete any of my stuff and the such like.

Cheers for all your help anyway!

21-07-2005, 23:07

Quote:

Originally Posted by budwieser

Hmmmmm! Just want to make sure that the students don`t delete any of my stuff and the such like.

Cheers for all your help anyway!

you could disable floppy or cd booting in the bios, and password protect the boot to your operating system, it may work ...

- otherwise you should be able to lock out the 'students' if you are admin

budwieser · 21-07-2005, 23:29

Quote:

Originally Posted by homealone

you could disable floppy or cd booting in the bios, and password protect the boot to your operating system, it may work ...

- otherwise you should be able to lock out the 'students' if you are admin

Its a home pc and set up so that anyone can use it, i don`t really want to start putting user accounts and the like on it as we all know how easy it is to get around that. Just want to stop anyone deleting my files.

ian@huth · 21-07-2005, 23:39

If you want to prevent various things from running on your computer then delete the commands that are used. Move the files to the recycle bin, copy them to floppy or CD so that you can restore them when needed and then empty the bin. I know that this method can be got round if the user is determined but so can any other method.

Graham · 21-07-2005, 23:44

Quote:

Originally Posted by budwieser

How do i Password Protect a Hard-Drive to stop someone from Formatting it or Deleting any of the files on it?

Can't you just delete the "format" .exe from the hard drive?

Stuart · 22-07-2005, 00:00

Well, Lacie do a hard drive with a fingerprint-controlled lock (http://www.lacie.com/products/product.htm?pid=10115 ). Basically, if the drive doesn't recognise your fingerprint, you don't get access.

Strzelecki · 22-07-2005, 00:37

You could still get around bios locks and admin locks using a winPE disk or WinbootCD providing boot from CD was still enabled (or usb). Very handy tool for resetting XP pro passwords. I think Stuarts idea is the most fool proof so far, although a little expensive!

Stuart · 22-07-2005, 00:57

Quote:

Originally Posted by Strzelecki

I think Stuarts idea is the most fool proof so far, although a little expensive!

Tell me about it!. I suspect Lacie actually designed the drive more for commercial apps where security is important, rather than home apps.