NTFS permissions and security

[Robert]

I have several questions about NTFS permissions and security. Let me
start with the obvious, my objective, which revolves around setting up
security for my external 200 GB hard drive. Now, you have a background
on the situation.

How do you reset the permissions and security to factory default on a
NTFS drive?

What are the default users and groups setup during Windows
installation? What purpose do these policy users and groups have?

Could you assign a logon and password to access a folder (or set of
folders) through Windows XP and allows generic access to other folders
and files?

Could two computers with the same user profile (loginw) directly
access the firewire drive ?

How does Windows XP use the follow permission profiles?
Administrators
SYSTEM
CREATOR OWNER
Power Users

Again, my goal revolves around limiting access to particular folders
on my external drive through Windows XP only; yet allowing my desktop
and laptop with the same user profiles to access files.

Please let me know if you suggestions on any visual primer on setting
NTFS permissions and troubleshooting. My web search has not found
anything help in areas other than networking. I do not seek a 500
pages novel on Windows Security; a 10 page picture book will do.
Thanks in advance.

 

[Alexander Grigoriev]

I have several questions about NTFS permissions and security. Let me
start with the obvious, my objective, which revolves around setting up
security for my external 200 GB hard drive. Now, you have a background
on the situation.

How do you reset the permissions and security to factory default on a
NTFS drive?

If you mean permission on all files in WINDOWS folder, you can use techique
described in
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;237399

What are the default users and groups setup during Windows
installation? What purpose do these policy users and groups have?

Could you assign a logon and password to access a folder (or set of
folders) through Windows XP and allows generic access to other folders
and files?

See http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;308418

Could two computers with the same user profile (loginw) directly
access the firewire drive ?

If you want to have the drive connected with Firewire to two computers: not
at the same time. Two hosts cannot mess with one filesystem. Use networking
for that purpose.

How does Windows XP use the follow permission profiles?
Administrators

It's a group all admins belong to.

SYSTEM

It is LOCAL_SYSTEM account. Many services (not all) run under it. It has the
highest privileges. Actually, nobody even check for its permissions, since
it has TCB_NAME (Trusted Computer Base) privilege.

CREATOR OWNER

It is shortcut for the object (for example, file) owner. Whoever created the
file, gets the permissions described by this.

Power Users

This group is deprecated. It allows write access to %windir%, %ProgramFiles%
and to HKLM\Software. For a secure installation, you should not be using it.