HDD sharing...

I will describe how our system is setup.

i have a re-movable HDD and my grandfather has a fixed HDD. both have winXP pro and the boot sequence is setup that it boots my HDD if it is present and then his if its not.

however, if he puts my drive in and changes the boot sequence, he can have unlimited access to my drive. i cannot put a code on the bios as its a "part" owner ship.

is there a key i can change on my grandads box that will stop him periodically from detecting or picking up my drive if its there when he boots up, or is there any other way i can do it??

thanks

On most bios you can set an admin password. Meaning... you don't have to have a password to boot it, but you have to have a password to change anything.

That should fix your problem. Check your motherboard and bios manufacturrer to see if you have this capability.

Trust_Not_123,


Have you thought about using PartitionMagic 8



http://www.powerquest.com/partitionmagic/


Dr_Evil

some removable drive cages have keys. If the key is off, so is the power. just remember to turn it off when you leave and to take the key and toss it somewhere like a drawer. Look into Removable hard drive cages on google to find one that will suit you. :)

firstly, no i cant put a password at all on the bios cause its OUR system not mine fully. and secondly i have a key for the lock, somewhere....but it doesnt turn the power off it just locks the drive either in or out. but becuase of my line of work there are probably thousands of those types of keys that would fit it.

Just put a password on the winxp install on your removable hd. That way, your grandfather can boot the normal os and even your winxp but can't get into your install.
Cheers,
cgkanchi

Trust_Not_123,

I dont know any BIOS key but may I suggest :-=

What you can do is, lock your folders using one of these:-



http://ns.winsite.net/bin/Info?5000000037514

http://www.download32.com/proghtml/347/34716.htm

http://www.doshare.com/

http://www.tropsoft.com/pcsecurity/prodinfo.htm

http://www.windowspc.com/start.pl?pa...older_Lock.htm


http://tucows.ciril.fr/system/preview/292646.html


:) Good luck

Dr_Evil

huh hmm. does this locking of folders work if the program isnt booted? my system does not get booted if he changes the bios setting to boot from his drive. is is just there like a logical partition not a primary. the only time my system gets booted is when my drive is in there. the only time grandads in booted is when mine is not. but if he changes the boot sequence, then he can have my drive in the machine, but be able to boot from his hard drive.

i know its a toughy but surely there is something that can do it

only joking.

I would suggest you look into a boot manager.

Another Suggestion I would make is that you may be able to have different Fat systems on the disk.

Certain Os's will not pick up other os's fat systems e.g fat 16 and ntfs are pretty incompatible.

Alternatively hide the jumpers from the back of the drive. its always a bugger to get them working without jumpers.

no, i like my partitions just the way they are. and what are you talking about jumpers. it has nothing to do with them. and if you read. they both have WinXP Pro and that does pick up all partition formats. maybe except ntfs but thats not the point.

If you have got WindowsXP pro you have got EFS, you could always encrypt all folders that you don't want him to see, it would be transparent to you and without your key nobody would be able to read the files (well not easily anyway). Just an idea :)

Trust_Not_123,

Quote:

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only time my system gets booted is when my drive is in there. the only time grandads in booted is when mine is not. but if he changes the boot sequence, then he can have my drive in the machine, but be able to boot from his hard drive.

---

Since you are using XP pro, you can set exclusive access to your folders:-

To do so

Log on using your administrator account

right click on your folders

Go to properties

Click on security tab

Click add,

Click and choose your username

Then

Remove Everyone,

Now when your grandfather logs on using his account, he will be able access your folders.

Also change your password, so that your grandfather wont be able to log in using your account.

Dr_Evil

ok, lets put it this way cause no-one seems to be understanding me. we have two hard drives. mine is a removable. his is a fixed drive. the boot sequence is that my drive boots, but if it is not there, his drive boots. but if he changes the boot sequence to boot with mine in there, then he has unlimited access to my files and folders. i cant use a program on my hard drive, cause in effect it wont run unless it was run manually after it was booted into his hard drive.

does anyone understand what i am saying?

Suggestions.

You could format the drive as ntfs and set permisions to individual directories.

You could install winrar or similar and keep your personal stuff in archives.

The properties idea will not work very well as XP pro drives are simply fat 32 and a child could remove fat 32 folder protection.

The NTFS partition idea may not be to hot as XP pro doesn't seem to like running on it.

Sorry I couldn't be of any more help to you.

no, there is no personal stuff. its the whole drive. and i dont want to change my partition

One thing you could do would be to boot into his WinXP pro with your drive installed. Go into the device manager and find your removable drive. Right click on it and choose disable. That way when he boots into his Windows with your drive in place, your drive will not show up. I hope this is what you are trying to accomplish.

<edit> sorry about the erroneous post, i misunderstood the question. To answer your question, No, i don't think there is a way to keep him from booting from his drive with yours as a slave and having full access to it. of course, if you use the advice below, you can keep him from reading SOME files, but not all... I will ask around and try and find a way, this is an interesting question, because, I think i would like to secure my root volume from admin access as a slave.

<original post>
A hard drive formated with NTFS, as opposed to one formated with FAT32, has access to local file security under windows 2000 and XP. You don't have to reformat your hard drive if it is not NTFS, from the command line, you can type
CONVERT [drive letter]: /FS:NTFS
so if you want to convert your c: drive, it is

Quote:

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convert c: /fs:ntfs [ENTER]

---

after you have done this, you can secure files where any user but you, including the administrator, can see the files, but not read their contents, and the user that encrypted them can access them just as he could any other file, this is known as "transparent encryption".. to do this, you right click on the files you wish to encrypt, goto properties>>advanced, and check "encrypt contents to secure data" and click OK. Int the resulting window, select "apply changes to this folder, subfolders, and files." I don't know if it is possible to do an entire partition this way, or, if so even if it would be wise, but for a single folder, or many folders, this is one way you could do this.

trustnot maybe you werent paying attention. Dr Evil answered your question. No you can not stop your grandfather from changing the boot sequence without a bios protection password. you dont want to do this so you answered your own question. Now I am guessing your grandfather and you use two different login names and passwords. now if you set it up so that you both use different credentials then you can setup securtiy.

Quote:

---

Log on using your administrator account
right click on your folders
Go to properties
Click on security tab
Click add,
Click and choose your username
Then
Remove Everyone, (except your own account)
Now when your grandfather logs on using his account, he will be able access your folders.

---

What this does is remove permissions from anyone being able to access the account. NO MATTER WHO LOGS IN. I am not yelling there just making the point that it doesnt matter what hard drive you boot off of this is what will happen
your grandfathers drive is booted master yours slave.

-->No one can access your hard drive without your login credentials and password.
scenario 2 your grand father boots master off your hard drive
--> he cant even login because he doesnt have credentials to your hard drive

scenario 3
--> lets say you give him credentials to run your hard drive BUT you dont put his login name into the security tab of the folders you want him locked out of, he cannot access these folders. unless you give him admin privelleges and he takes control which takes more of an advanced user to figure out how to do this.

Now I think that is answering what you were wondering??

no, no, no permissions don't mean dick when his father has administrative access, sure, it's an annoyance, but he can just change them himself, because when the OS is booted from his hard drive, he is administrator over all volumes on a system

yes. i can disable my drive onnhis system but it can easily be undone. if i disable my HDD under his system, is there a way i can hide my disabled drive under the device manager and hardware ect. . this way there isnt any possible way he can enable my drive again.

x acidreign x,

permissions will work because , If you read properly,

Quote:

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both have winXP pro and the boot sequence is setup that it boots my HDD if it is present and then his if its not.

---

both of them have a separate boot, therefore 2 administrator account.If Trust_Not_123, changes the file access his drive, grandfather wont be access his drive at all.

It doesnt matter who's boot is master of slave.

Trust_Not_123,

all you need to do is convert your file system to NTFS if it is FAT32 .
Then follow my instructions,


Log on using your administrator account
right click on your c drive

Go to properties
Click on security tab
Click add,
Click and choose your username
Then
Remove Everyone, (except your own account)

Now when your grandfather logs on using his account, he wont be able access your drive.


Trust me Trust_Not_123

Dr_Evil

You can restrcict access to drives, hide drives and hide the hardware tab by creating a local policy on your Grandfather's install of Win XP. Here are the steps.

1. Click Start, click Run, type mmc, and then click OK.
2. Click Action, and then click Add/Remove Snap-ins.
3. Click Add, click Group Policy, click Add, click Group Policy or Local Policy, and then click Finish.
4. Click Close, and then click OK.

Go to User Configuration\Administrative Templates\Windows Components\Windows Explorer

There are three options that will interest you. There is a hide specified drives in my computer, prevent access to drives from my computer and remove hardware tab.

You can hide the drive and prevent access to it. Or disable it in the device manager and then hide the hardware tab.

There are very good explanations for these settings in the MMC which is quite unusual for Microsoft. I hope this helps.

You can restrcict access to drives, hide drives and hide the hardware tab by creating a local policy on your Grandfather's install of Win XP. Here are the steps.

1. Click Start, click Run, type mmc, and then click OK.
2. Click Action, and then click Add/Remove Snap-ins.
3. Click Add, click Group Policy, click Add, click Group Policy or Local Policy, and then click Finish.
4. Click Close, and then click OK.

Go to User Configuration\Administrative Templates\Windows Components\Windows Explorer

There are three options that will interest you. There is a hide specified drives in my computer, prevent access to drives from my computer and remove hardware tab.

You can hide the drive and prevent access to it. Or disable it in the device manager and then hide the hardware tab.

There are very good explanations for these settings in the MMC which is quite unusual for Microsoft. I hope this helps.

thanks that has been the best suggestion so far bighabu. i will try it out.

it sounds solid enough, and if it dont work you'll hear from me :P

thanks again

An easy way to prevent access to your hard disk is to make sure you password all your accounts on your hard disk, including the administrator account. Then disable fast user switching and the welcome screen. Make sure all user accounts have different passwords from your grandad's user accounts. It is especially important that the administrator accounts have different passwords, or he will still be able to gain access. Now, provided your disk is formatted as NTFS, he will have to enter a username and password that is valid on your hard disk to access it.

The only drawback is you will have to enter a username and password to log on to windows when you boot from your hard disk, but that's only a minor inconvenience.

I tried that suggestion and it works.

You can select to disable the other disk through policies.

no virii required then trust not.