Protecting Folders on Local Drive

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Guest

Sirs:

I have a plug & play external hard drive which is being used by several
different people for backups. Each user has his own folder. I would like to
give each user exclusive access to his own folder (i.e., deny each user
access to any folder other than his own). I have not been able to do this
successfully, because Windows XP Pro sees the drive on the USB port as a
"Local Drive", and not as a "Network Drive".

Is there a way to make folders on a Local Drive inaccessible to that drive's
user? Or is Windows XP Pro's folder security system designed to safeguard
only Network Drives?
 
Format the drive with NTFS and remove all permisions for each folder for
everyone except creator/owner and the user. Note when you hook the drive up
to another computer an administrator on that computer could take ownership
and get at the files. Most people wouldn't figure this out but a determined
user might. Your only other option would be to encrypt the files for each
user but that involves another set of problems. Using XP's built in EFS can
be a recipe for disaster unless you fully understand and test it's use. In a
workgroup environment it is very likely you will eventually lose data with
EFS. I would recommend a totally different setup for backups. A shared
network drive or if the computers are not on the same network then a
seperate external drive for each user.
 
I like the encryption method my self.

With the (free) program I list here you can create one main encryption
folder on the main c drive and then on the external you can create as many
"additional" containers as you need. Then you password protect each
container with a password. Then when someone wants to get into that
container they just use the program and say open additional container enter
the password. Now the container looks like a drive on the computer. You can
even set each container to remember the drive letter each time. Once the
container appears as a drive letter you just drag and drop like any other
drive. Once the user finishes he closes the container and the others can not
get to it.

The nice thing about this over windows encryption is with windows if you
were to loose you system and rebuild you probably will loose all data. With
this program you simply just need to install the program in any other
computer and open the file with the password.

For me I use the free version. It allows containers of 25mb of space on XP,
you can create as many containers as you want. However if you want larger
containers you must pay for the program. A version that will create
containers of 2.5gig runs 29.95 and you can go bigger if you need.

This program also will let you creat encrypted files to send in email. With
the free decrypter, the person on the other end only needs the password to
open the file. If you did not want them to have to use the decrypter you can
also create a single file into a self extracting encrypted file to send in
email.

There is one more feature of the program. You can install a stand alone
version on a flash drive to create a protected space on the flash drive and
with this movable copy you do not need to install the program on the
computer you happen to have your flash drive installed to. Just open from
within the drive itself.

Hope you check it out to see if it will work for you.
http://www.cypherix.com/index.htm

Vince
 
Kerry:

Many thanks for your helpful reply. I have one follow-up question.

If I "remove permisions for each folder for everyone except creator/owner
and the user", then SYSTEM is denied access. A co-worker tells me denying
SYSTEM acces is a mistake. He says I should allow access only to
Creator/Owner and SYSTEM.

Is this incorrect advice?
 
So to clarify ... I really need 3 permissions, and not 2; and these are
SYSTEM, Creator/Owner, and User. Correct?
 
Yes.

--
Kerry
MS-MVP Windows - Shell/User
So to clarify ... I really need 3 permissions, and not 2; and these
are SYSTEM, Creator/Owner, and User. Correct?
Click to expand...
 
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