Best Way to Low Level Lock NTFS HDDs in Windows XP

  • Thread starter Thread starter JJones
  • Start date Start date
J

JJones

I have a couple of large sized ATA drives in external USB 2.0 cases.
These drives all use NTFS. Some of these drives are completely full and
I would like to make them read-only in Windows XP (SP2). What is the
best way to do this?

I know I can mark all the files as read-only from the file system
attributes level but I would like to mark the drives read-only on the
lowest level as possible. That is, even if files were wide open
(security and file attributes wise) and I was logged in as
Administrator, any attempts to write or modify files would be prevented.

I'm not looking as much for security but more for reliability and
durability. These drives are filled with personal files and I would
like to remove or eliminate the possibility of accidental erasure.
Essentially, if these HDD external cases had a "read-only" tab like the
old 3.5" floppies, it would be great.

Thanks for any info you can provide!

-J
 
I'm not looking as much for security but more for reliability and
durability. These drives are filled with personal files and I would
like to remove or eliminate the possibility of accidental erasure.
Essentially, if these HDD external cases had a "read-only" tab like the
old 3.5" floppies, it would be great.
Click to expand...

An interesting approach. I would suggest to perform a backup
of those important personal files instead. Hard drive failures
happen from time to time; for external disks even more often.
 
I have a couple of large sized ATA drives in external USB 2.0 cases.
These drives all use NTFS. Some of these drives are completely full and
I would like to make them read-only in Windows XP (SP2). What is the
best way to do this?

I know I can mark all the files as read-only from the file system
attributes level but I would like to mark the drives read-only on the
lowest level as possible. That is, even if files were wide open
(security and file attributes wise) and I was logged in as
Administrator, any attempts to write or modify files would be prevented.

I'm not looking as much for security but more for reliability and
durability. These drives are filled with personal files and I would
like to remove or eliminate the possibility of accidental erasure.
Essentially, if these HDD external cases had a "read-only" tab like the
old 3.5" floppies, it would be great.

Thanks for any info you can provide!

-J
Click to expand...


OT: If they are important to you make a backup copy. IMO a large disk
(the OP doesn't say how big) in a USB case is an accident waiting to
happen, esp NTFS. I've used NTFS on thousands of machines for 10
years, like it, and until these USB cases showed up there were almost
ZERO reported NTFS-related problems unless there was a hardware
failure.
 
Open Drive Properties / Security and change Permissions to Everyone -
Read/Ex, including subdirectories.
 
Back
Top