Permissions & Restricted Access

[Dave]

I own a small business. I have 6 PCs all running Windows 2000
Professional. 4 are desktops & 2 are laptops. I have one account on
each machine with admin privileges. The other accounts on all
machines are only user accounts. All machines are set up the same -
same features, same logins/passwords, same setups, etc.

I want to restrict access to a number of directories so the user
accounts can only read or read/execute. From within Windows Explorer,
I can right click on a directory & select Properties. From
Properties, I can adjust the permissions as I want. The problem is
that the Security tab does not show up on any of the laptops. It only
shows up on the desktop machines. I have the same version of Win/2K
on all machines. All machines have SP4 installed.

If you can help:
Why does the Security tab not show up on the laptop machines? Can I
get it to show up?
If I can not get the Security tab to show up on the laptops, how can
I set the access permissions as I want?

Dave

 

[Paul Adare]

microsoft.public.win2000.security news group, Dave

Why does the Security tab not show up on the laptop machines? Can I
get it to show up?
If I can not get the Security tab to show up on the laptops, how can
I set the access permissions as I want?

What files system is in use on the laptops? You can only set security if
it is NTFS. To convert from FAT or FAT32 to NTFS at a command prompt
run:

convert /fs:ntfs <drive:>

--
Paul Adare
MVP - Windows - Virtual Machine
http://www.identit.ca/blogs/paul/
Ca·nadi·an (k-nd-n) adj. & n.
n: An educated, unarmed American with health care.

 

[Dave]

I'm sorry if I am asking some dumb questions, but here goes?

How do you tell what file system I have on my Win/2K laptops?

The Win/2K help file says I can convert FAT or FAT32 to NTFS without
formatting the volume. Does the conversion to NTFS damage or destroy
the O/S or any other files stored on c:? Although I do have all the
data backed up and I have the cds for all the programs, I'd prefer not
to have to reload & reinstall everything.

What benefit does NTFS have besides giving me the ability to set the
permissions? How long does the conversion take? The disk drive in
each machine is about 9GB.

All of the laptops have plenty of disk space available. Since my
business is a day care facility, the ability to set permissions is
critical. I have had the kids delete critical O/S files several
times.

 

[Paul Adare]

microsoft.public.win2000.security news group, Dave

I'm sorry if I am asking some dumb questions, but here goes?

No dumb questions except for those that never get asked.

How do you tell what file system I have on my Win/2K laptops?

Open My Computer, right click a drive and then click Properties. The
file system type is listed on the General tab.

The Win/2K help file says I can convert FAT or FAT32 to NTFS without
formatting the volume. Does the conversion to NTFS damage or destroy
the O/S or any other files stored on c:?

No, convert.exe is a non-destructive process, however as with any major
change to a production system you should have a valid, known good backup
first.

Although I do have all the
data backed up and I have the cds for all the programs, I'd prefer not
to have to reload & reinstall everything.

Understood. As above you should be fine. In all the years I've been
using convert, I've never once experienced data loss though again, your
mileage may vary.

What benefit does NTFS have besides giving me the ability to set the
permissions?

NTFS is a journaled file system which means it is much more resilient to
errors and corruption than FAT or FAT32. You also can use NTFS
compression to compress files and folders and you can encrypt files and
folders with EFS. DO NOT USE EFS UNLESS YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING!!!

How long does the conversion take? The disk drive in
each machine is about 9GB.

It has been a while since I've done a conversion but it really doesn't
take long at all.

All of the laptops have plenty of disk space available. Since my
business is a day care facility, the ability to set permissions is
critical. I have had the kids delete critical O/S files several
times.

Understood.

--
Paul Adare
MVP - Windows - Virtual Machine
http://www.identit.ca/blogs/paul/
Ca·nadi·an (k-nd-n) adj. & n.
n: An educated, unarmed American with health care.

 

[Dave]

Thanks for the help.

I converted 3 laptops from Fat32 to NTFS.

Two had their 9GB hard drive 20% filled. The conversion was scheduled
to get done when I rebooted. It took about 10 minutes.

The third had the 9GB hard drive about 85% filled. This machine took
2 reboots to do the job. This drive was also fantastically fragmented
when the process was done (20 hours to defrag). But, the process was
successful & I now have NTFS on all laptops.

It appears that I have more available disk space after the
conversions. I suspect this may be due to NTFS having a smaller
cluster size.

Thanks again.