Making a folder on a seperate drive in Win XP 'private'

[Induna]

Prey tell, how is this done?

Right-click on a folder and you see 'sharing and security' then 'sharing' . It says "To make this folder and it's subfolders private so that only you have access, select the following checkbox"

Problem is it's greyed out so I can't. Yes I'm logged on as the administrator. This folder is on a seperate drive from the one where Windows is installed. And yes the file system of choice is indeed NTFS. And no I'm not on a network.

Actually, is it possible to make a whole drive private from other users?!


C'mon lets see some knowledge displayed here.

[Linkin' Park]

Hi induna,

You cannot select the "Make this folder private" option on the Sharing tab in the properties for a folder, if the folder is not in your user profile (Drive_letter:\Documents and Settings\User_name). The Make this folder private option is available only for files in your user profile (the My Documents folder and its subfolders). I recommend you move the folder you are trying to make private to your "My Documents".

As for making a whole partition private or hidden, that's just not possible. When this happens, it's actually a problem. If you have a hot swappable (external for example) drive you can remove it and put it back on and thus simulating a hidden partition.

Linkin' Park.

[begoodbebad]

Induna You can set access rights and permissions for files and folders in your capacity as the administrator. What you need to do is switch off simple file sharing: In Windows Explorer: Tools>Folder Options>View scroll all the way to the bottom of the list and uncheck "Use simple file sharing" and Apply. As the administrator you can now set access/permissions for different users and groups via the security tab.
You need to look at this closely and make sure you know what you want to do. There are a few pitfalls if you are not careful, for example a user may be a member of more than one group and if either of those groups is restricted in its access to a folder/file then that user will be bound by that restriction even when functioning as a member of a different group....In a home environment you probably won't have to get into this too much but you can see how much fun an admin might have with multiple project groups with some common members....lucky people ....you can then get into setting special permissions and short circuiting your brain while you try and force it to function as a combination flow chart/venn diagram.
Everything you need to know is in XP's excellent help sections. Start by refreshing your knowledge of different types of user accounts and then you're ready to play around with setting permissions which is done on the security tab of a folder or file's Properties. You can't really screw stuff up even if you deny yourself permission to view your own files in error...it's all about ownership (that's a little hint for when you do lock yourself out of your own data:tilted ).

[Krell]

begoodbebad . . . I'm gonna end up owing you lunch if you keep this up.


As a side note, sometimes when you use Windows Update, or SP1 etc, you will get a folder on another drive that has some weird numerical name. The folder and its contents are "Read Only" and even 3rd party utils cant change that. But you can.

The answer is the same, you have to keep fiddling until you get owndership with FULL permissions. Then, change the attribute, and away you go, delete the folder to your hearts content.


.

[begoodbebad]

begoodbebad . . . I'm gonna end up owing you lunch if you keep this up.



Someone has to help out occasionally so you can sleep. :tilted

I have a folder a little over 4GB. It contains ISOs of Windows NT based OS's, Service Packs, MS and 3rd party Windows utilities, Office Suites 2000 thru to 2003 (boy were they expensive:shy ) and various....less official and conventional but nonetheless extremely useful Windows tools :gj . As you might expect this folder is very very dear to me. I will not quickly forget the day I denied myself, as admin, permission to access it or even know anything about it except the fact it exists...I learned fast about ownership and permissions and I won't forget until the next time.
I can almost laugh about it now I have it all backed up on DVD.

[Induna]

Damn, I thought there was going to be an easy answer to this. I'm gonna have to read, then re-read through your message again carefully. Cheers.

[Lehk]

...I will not quickly forget the day I denied myself, as admin, permission to access it or even know anything about it except the fact it exists...I learned fast about ownership and permissions and I won't forget until the next time.
I can almost laugh about it now I have it all backed up on DVD.

Dual boot linux, the NTFS "secured" folders simply have an attribute set to deny access to the folder, the Linux NTFS reader doesn't give a flying fvck about access permissions, that is how I was able to recover my stuff after a virus destroyed a windows install but not my files, I reinstalled to a second drive and kept getting "Access Denied" so i tried it in linux and sure enough it worked.

[flyingrhino]

cut the BS. install cryptainer or compusec and you have a private drive (like k:) and is encrypted. both progs are free.

[begoodbebad]

cut the BS. install cryptainer or compusec and you have a private drive (like k:) and is encrypted. both progs are free.If you have XP Pro you already have the ability to encrypt your data. It's one of the few but important differences between the Home and Pro versions. The encryption used by XP has never been cracked, the encrypted data cannot be read from another OS or by removing the drive to a different computer or by any method other than by using the correct key. That's not crap.

XP Home and Pro - best freeware on the planet.

[Induna]

Actually there's the snag, I tried it on mine, I have XP Pro and managed to do it. But the query was for a mate, and he runs XP Home.

I just told him to change the folder to hidden, when he need to go in it just enable 'show hidden folders'. Keep it simple for him.