Making A Secondary Hard Drive Private

  • Thread starter Thread starter Guest
  • Start date Start date
G

Guest

I installed a 40 gig hard drive in the slave spot and use it to back up stuff
onto, like pictures and saved programs and such. I was wondering if there
was a way to make it private like the folders, My Documents and such. I dont
want other family members to be able to access it. I have myself and two
other family members on there as users. We each have our own user name to
select. Can anybody help?

Blaze
 
HOW TO: Set, View, Change, or Remove File and Folder Permissions in Windows
XP
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=308418

How to configure file sharing in Windows XP:
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=304040

--
Regards,

Ramesh Srinivasan, Microsoft MVP [Windows XP Shell/User]
Windows® XP Troubleshooting http://www.winhelponline.com


I installed a 40 gig hard drive in the slave spot and use it to back up
stuff
onto, like pictures and saved programs and such. I was wondering if there
was a way to make it private like the folders, My Documents and such. I
dont
want other family members to be able to access it. I have myself and two
other family members on there as users. We each have our own user name to
select. Can anybody help?

Blaze
 
dieselcaddy said:
I installed a 40 gig hard drive in the slave spot and use it to back up stuff
onto, like pictures and saved programs and such. I was wondering if there
was a way to make it private like the folders, My Documents and such. I dont
want other family members to be able to access it. I have myself and two
other family members on there as users. We each have our own user name to
select. Can anybody help?

Blaze
Click to expand...

Why not just physically remove the 40 GB drive and install
it into its own USB/Firewire enclosure that can be taken
away by you? Also removes temptation to others to try to hack
past the protection.
 
I had thought about that, but it isnt that big of a thing that I would need
to go through that extent of a ordeal. It would just be more convienent to
have it internal. With it that way I can store some personal stuff on it and
have some space for non personal use.

Blaze
 
What about the Microsoft Powertool Tweakui.

From what I understand, you can set a drive letter to not show up in My
Computer or Windows Explorer.
Then you would put a shortcut on your desktop (under your user name) to have
access to it.

Others being logged on can still get to the drive. But it will make it more
difficult.
If you more worried about the casual browser, this might be a solution.

Tweakui can be found at the Microsoft Download Center.

Hope this helps!

Richard in Va.
+++++++++++++++
 
Mistoffolees said:
Why not just physically remove the 40 GB drive and install
it into its own USB/Firewire enclosure that can be taken
away by you? Also removes temptation to others to try to hack
past the protection.
Click to expand...


And, most important, it protects the backup. I don't recommend backup to a
second non-removable hard drive because it leaves you susceptible to
simultaneous loss of the original and backup to many of the most common
dangers: severe power glitches, nearby lightning strikes, virus attacks,
even theft of the computer.

In my view, secure backup needs to be on removable media, and not kept in
the computer. For really secure backup (needed, for example, if the life of
your business depends on your data) you should have multiple generations of
backup, and at least one of those generations should be stored off-site.
 
23:26 31-May-06 / Reply to 'dieselcaddy'

Another alternative might be to 'zip' and 'encrypt' groups of files - or the

entire drive - with WinZip, WinRAR or the MS disk compression utility (if you

have it).

You can use simple, 128-bit or even 256-bit encryption to prevent anyone from
de-compressing and viewing the files in the zip file. For 256-bit encryption,
they'd probably need a Supercomputer, the latest hack program and a couple of
years or more of rent payments for the supercomp.


Then, 'Rename' the compressed file(s) with a rare or non-standard extension.
This prevents viewing even the 'file names' contained within the zip files,
via

Explorer - unless you either rename the zip file with the original '.zip'
extension, or, you tell Explorer what program to use to open the zip file
with
(like WinZip, etc.).

For example, if you zip the group of files to "Files1.zip", later rename the
latter to "Files1.xyz".

Unfortunately a DOS or text type viewer would allow you to see the file names
in the zip file.

To pre-empt the latter, repeat the above process. That is, zip, encrypt and
re-
name the zip file, preferably using slightly different names each time. This
should stop even the most determined power user from getting any kind of
access.

God help you, 'though', if you forget your password(s) - or if your backup
drive
gets infected by some weird virus that likes to scramble zip files; or, if

sectors get damaged or it ever crashes. To pre-empt the latter, at least, you

might want to back up your zipped file(s) to DVD(s).
 
Back
Top