Hide Folder on FAT32 Partition

[John Schneider]

Running XP Pro SP1 (too scared to go to SP2!)

My kids share a computer and tend to mess up each other's files/folders. I
need a way to hide folders from users other than the one currently logged
on. I've read many of the posts in this group, and have read the references
to the articles about disabling simple file sharing, but that only applies
to NTFS partitions. For a number of reasons, I'm stuck with FAT32 for the
partition where the kids keep their personal files.

I've seen a bunch of 3rd party utilities that can do this, but I'm sure
there must be a way within XP Pro to set folder permissions by user.

Thanks for any tips!
John Schneider

 

[Steve Riley [MSFT]]

Not on FAT partitions. FAT has no file or folder security -- only share security,
which works only over a network, not within a single machine.

I can't think of any reason why you should't be able to convert these partitions
to NTFS. Why do you think you can't?

Steve Riley
(e-mail address removed)

 

[John Schneider]

Thanks for the reply Steve.

My primary reason for not converting to NTFS is that this is a multi-boot
machine. My son still has some games and other programs he uses under
Windows 98, so I put System Commander on this machine to allow him to boot
to either 98 or XP. I need a "common" area where the data files can be
stored and used by either OS.

Also, I occasionally use this machine for some testing of my own and have
Windows 2000 in another partition, again, using the FAT32 partition for all
the data. I've noticed that XP and Win2k don't like each other's NTFS
partitions.

John

 

[Steve Riley [MSFT]]

Heh, ya got me there... completely forgot about dual-boot scenarios with
9x. Not much we can really do here out-of-the-box. You might look at PGP
Personal Desktop (http://www.pgp.com/products/desktop/personal/index.html),
with which you can password-protect folders. Perhaps that might help you
achieve something similar to what you're looking for?

Strange about the XP vs. 2000 NTFS issue you're having. If you've formatted
the drive with Windows 2000, XP should have no problems using it (depending
on your drive geometry, there might be problems the other direction). Try
doing it that way and seeing if the problem goes away.

Steve Riley
(e-mail address removed)

 

[John Schneider]

Steve,

Thanks again for the response. I do appreciate you taking the time.

Looks like the PGP thing might be the only way to go, but I was hoping not
to have to add any 3rd party software to the mix. I've read about utilities
such as "Hide Folders XP", "Folder Lock"..., but just don't like the idea of
using a utility that could possibly corrupt the drive or make things
disappear forever. I've seen enough negative reviews on these kinds of
utilities to make me steer way clear of them. I was hoping there was a way
to do this within XP, but it looks like without using NTFS, I'm hosed.

The NTFS issue between 2000 and XP is indeed strange. From what I can
remember, if you format a partition as NTFS with Win 2k, then XP can handle
it, but going the other way, 2k can't deal with an NTFS partition setup by
XP.

Thanks again,
John