Prevent formatting partition

[Guest]

Hi,

is there any way, in Vista, to make a partition harder to format ? I mean
remove the Format option from the context menu or make it fail. I know it's
possible anyway from disk management, but this requires more skill. My
needing is a dummy protection. I can protect content using ACL and making
files read only, but I didn't find a way to prevent a dummy user to try what
"format" means.

Thanks.

Massimo.

 

[Andrew McLaren]

is there any way, in Vista, to make a partition harder to format ? I mean
remove the Format option from the context menu or make it fail. I know
it's possible anyway from disk management, but this requires more skill.
My needing is a dummy protection. I can protect content using ACL and
making files read only, but I didn't find a way to prevent a dummy user to
try what "format" means.

Hi Massimo

Vista provides the ideal solution for this problem: UAC.

If you create your Users as Standard users, they cannot run the Format
command. If they try, they get a message:
"Access denied as you do not have sufficient provileges".

The same principle applies to many other dangerous operations.

Is there a reason why you want to reate teh users as Administrators, yet
still prevent them from running Format?

A piu tarde,

 

[Guest]

Yes this is true, but for experience I know that the dummy who select
format, in 99% of cases will also click on Continue on the UAC warning.
Infact, I think that UAC is useless for dummies because they always confirm,
confirm, confirm without asking themselves "what is this ?".

Massimo.

 

[xfile]

Is that how tech support used to teach people?

Just click Yes, Yes, Yes or Continue, Continue, Continue.

With or without UAC, those clicked Yes without reading or thinking anything
will continue to do so. Nothing is going to change even with UAC.

Yes this is true, but for experience I know that the dummy who select
format, in 99% of cases will also click on Continue on the UAC warning.
Infact, I think that UAC is useless for dummies because they always
confirm, confirm, confirm without asking themselves "what is this ?".

Massimo.

 

[Andrew McLaren]

Yes this is true, but for experience I know that the dummy who select
format, in 99% of cases will also click on Continue on the UAC warning.
Infact, I think that UAC is useless for dummies because they always
confirm, confirm, confirm without asking themselves "what is this ?".

Al contrario ... if they are Standard User, they won't even get the
"Continue?" warning. They cannot format a partition - end of story.

It's only administrative users (members of Administrators group) who get the
prompt.

Ci vediamo,
Andrew

 

[WTC]

Al contrario ... if they are Standard User, they won't even get the
"Continue?" warning. They cannot format a partition - end of story.

An UAC prompt will occur for a Standard User. I just tried it for the
heck of it.

 

[WTC]

Yes this is true, but for experience I know that the dummy who select
format, in 99% of cases will also click on Continue on the UAC
warning. Infact, I think that UAC is useless for dummies because they
always confirm, confirm, confirm without asking themselves "what is
this ?".

If you have assigned a password for the Administrative accounts that
you have created then the Standard User would need to know one of the
passwords for the administrative accounts in order to continue with the
UAC prompt.

 

[Andrew McLaren]

An UAC prompt will occur for a Standard User. I just tried it for the

heck of it.

Hi William,

If you go in through Explorer, to format using the GUI ... yes, you're
right.

I had been thinking of a "format" command at the Command Prompt. I'd
forgotten there were also GUI tools, to do this

But assuming the Standard user does not have an administrator password with
which to elevate, they're still blocked from formatting the drive. So, I
think it's a good solution (no?).

Cheers,

 

[WTC]

Hi William,

If you go in through Explorer, to format using the GUI ... yes,
you're right.

I had been thinking of a "format" command at the Command Prompt. I'd
forgotten there were also GUI tools, to do this

You're correct if the Command Prompt has not been elevated.

But assuming the Standard user does not have an administrator
password with which to elevate, they're still blocked from formatting
the drive. So, I think it's a good solution (no?).

Works for me if the Local Security Policies User Rights have not been
changed for "Perform volume maintenance tasks". The default security
setting for this setting is the user will require to be in the
Administrative Group to perform these tasks.

 

[Andrew McLaren]

Works for me if the Local Security Policies User Rights have not been

changed for "Perform volume maintenance tasks".

It seems unlikely that anyone would grant this permission, then look for a
way to stop standard users formatting drives )

But if we are talking about a 100% deterministic model, with *all* necessary
pre-conditions fully specified, then ... yes.