Software to prevent important files being deleted

  • Thread starter Thread starter mthatcher1234
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I've Googled and found nothing. Has anyone got any suggestions?
Margaret
Click to expand...
Back them up to another hard drive, or CD\DVDs. A second copy can be a life
saver.
best wishes..OJ
 
All, apart from complete and utter stupidity by the user.
You don;t want a file to be deleted? Make it Read Only.
Click to expand...

Yeah, right. Good luck. :/

Anything (even the dumbest piece of s/w) can "-R" files.

J
 
I've Googled and found nothing. Has anyone got any suggestions?
Margaret
Click to expand...

Set that file to "read only". On a win system, drop to the command
prompt and type attrib +r file.ext and to clear the read only bit
type attrib -r file.ext I'm sure you can also do this in windows
explorer, but I don't use it so I don't know how.
 
I've Googled and found nothing. Has anyone got any suggestions?
Margaret
Click to expand...
========================================================================
http://www.updatexp.com/windows-file-protection.html

========================================================================
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===============
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=====================
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=============================
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========================================================================
 
I've Googled and found nothing. Has anyone got any suggestions?
Click to expand...

I suggest that you try to come up with a good backup system, either to a
secondary (preferably removable) hard drive, CDR or DVD-R. At the very
least, partition your hard drive and clone one partition to the second.
For cloning I recommend XXCopy:

http://www.xxcopy.com/index.htm

which will, whenever you want, clone your main hard drive or partition
to your backup. There are other freeware backup programs out there too.

IMO, these days, given the short lifespan of hard drives (Maxtors in
particular IME) anybody who is running a computer without a backup
system in place is just waiting for a disaster to happen. Not a matter
of "if", but rather of "when." Too many people come to me asking me to
magically save their data when their hard drive has become totally
inoperable.

As far as rendering a file undeletable, I would say that using your
Recycle Bin judiciously is your best bet. Overwriting a file, however,
is very hard to prevent. Best way to prevent that is to work only on a
backup copy.

--
Regards from John Corliss
My current killfile: aafuss, Chrissy Cruiser, Slowhand Hussein and others.
No adware, cdware, commercial software, crippleware, demoware, nagware,
PROmotionware, shareware, spyware, time-limited software, trialware,
viruses or warez please.
 
I've Googled and found nothing. Has anyone got any suggestions?
Margaret
Click to expand...
M -

It would be necessary to "attrib" the folder they are in "Read only"
Users would be unable to make edits, or delete. If this is not
desirable, the only method known is to either bakc up the files, using
Cobian Backup or other tool, or having a file undeleter close at hand.
That's it.

John H.

www.jhoodsoft.org
 
What circumstances is the files you want to prevent it being deleted?
Security? Easily Modifiable? Long-Term Archiving? Recoverable?

For security, the best choice is not to make backups or making it at a
secure location.
For easy modifying, use backups progs, if the file is big use a second
HD, if small, make a new partition. If it won't be modified, use CDs.
For Long-Term Archive, use a CD-ROM, if the file size is big, use a
DVD-ROM.
For Recovering Files, like preventing modifying, use backups progs and
set it to make a new file if the old file is modified or using a data
recovery software.

Windows have support to make a file read-only, but if you often need to
modify the files, this might not be the best solution. If you need a
file that need a very high level of security, read only also cannot do
that since unsetting it is as easy as unchecking the read only checkbox
in its property (Right-click the files or folders>Property>Read-Only
checkbox), or by command line interface, Start>Run>"cmd" or
"command">"attrib <completefilelocation> <+R|-R>" (may be different
depending on OSes but when you reach the command interface, the rest
are the same.

To make a partition, I reccomend you have somone who is computer-wise
helping you except if you are sure you can do it by yourself or you
have done it before. READ ALL THE INSTRUCTION CAREFULLY FROM THE
BEGINING TILL THE END, PRINT IF NEEDED EXCEPT IF YOU HAVE SOMEONE
COMPUTER-WISE ON YOUR SIDE. I CANNOT BE HELD RESPONSIBLE IF YOUR PC
WENT CRAZY, and please note that there may be slight differences.

I presume you have windows.
First backup all important data, if there are lots of data, use a
second harddisk.
Then have your Windows installation CD on your side, or at least a boot
disk for now since you have to reinstall windows at the end.
Turn on your PC, and keep pressing delete (may be different depending
on your BIOS) until you see BIOS setup page. Find in that page the Boot
Sequence and make your CD driver the first in order (if from CD), or
your Floppy disk drive (if from boot disk) by using + and - sign (may
be different depending on BIOS).
Save the setting then restart, insert the WinCD or BootDisk, then you
will be asked if you want to boot from CD, press the key it asked
(maybe y or any key).
The booting from CD may take a while
Follow instruction, cause different OS CD may have different ways.
Choose to format and make the first partition, then the second
partition an remember that the second partition size should be more
than the file size.
When finished reeinstall Windows.
Then Go to the BIOS setup page again then return the Boot sequence to
HD first followed by the rest at your choice.
The second partition is visible like there is two HD on your system.
You will see a C: and D: on My Computer, and possibly E: if you have CD
driver.
 
Thank you for the suggestions. The op. system is XP.
Making files 'read only' on this system does not prevent deletion, it
merely sends up a message asking if you really want to delete a 'read
only' file. I was looking for something a bit more idiot proof than
that.
Margaret
 
Thank you for the suggestions. The op. system is XP.
Making files 'read only' on this system does not prevent deletion, it
merely sends up a message asking if you really want to delete a 'read
only' file. I was looking for something a bit more idiot proof than
that.
Click to expand...

The key, assuming you use NTFS (which is default under XP), is user
permissions. An administrator can still delete the file, but as long as you
set the file to be read-only by normal users then no normal user can delete
it without the administrator password. That should be fairly idiot proof.
 
As others have suggested, backups are the best. One mistake to avoid is
using the same backup meduim each time, overwriting what was there
before. The problem is you might overwrite a good file with a bad one
and then your good file is gone forever.

If you're backing up to CD or DVD, use a new one each time. If you're
backing up to a HD, backup to a new folder or new image file each time.

Mr Bill
 
Hi Margaret,

You'll want to have a backup strategy in place. Here are a bunch of
freeware backup tools:

http://free-backup.info/backup-software.htm

With freeware backup tools, you'll be best served by keeping your
critical files (documents, favorites, email, address book) together in
a single "myDocs" folder and then having the backup tool archive them
to a second drive (not to a second partition on the same drive!). If
you want even more protection, just periodically burn the archive to
DVD and mail it to your Aunt in Timbuktu.

If you've already lost data, here are some freeware undelete tools:

http://free-backup.info/data-recovery-software.htm

Good luck, hope this helps!




referably, keep your critical data

... and if you do
 
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