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I have a 1.5TB USB drive with many important files that I want to give to a friend (they have Windows7) for reading only purposes. thumbscrew appears to flip a registry switch but it seems to be on the local pc only.

UPDATE:

Are you aware of any USB drives that have such functionality built into their firmware?

Journeyman Geek
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iKarampa
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  • As the posters below have stated; locking would either need to be hardware (like a switch on the USB) or done on the local machine. You could always mark your files as read only on the USB (right click-->Properties). Of course they could always un-mark the files from read-only and do whatever they like with them but the question is, will they? – emtunc Sep 02 '10 at 15:58
  • I've often wished my hard drive enclosure had a readonly switch like some USB flash drives do. That would make it much less unsettling to plug it into a friend's Windows machine. – Brian Sep 02 '10 at 17:40
  • Is is possible to format a pendrive using NTFS and then do it read-only with permissions? If a friend uses Linux, will the read-only protection fail? – kokbira May 04 '11 at 18:23
  • Related: [How to physically damage a USB stick, SD card, or SDXC card to permanently make it read only?](https://superuser.com/questions/1609274) – bitinerant Dec 18 '20 at 05:36

9 Answers9

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My best option is use DISKPART form windows

DISKPART

LIST DISK (To check which flash drive listed as disk in windows)

SELECT DISK 1 (It should be disk 1 if you have single hardisk attached to computer, disks naming starts from 0 but partition starts from 1)

ATTRIBUTES DISK SET READONLY [And its done ;-) ]

Prashant
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Any locking mechanism I'm aware of would be on your local machine.

Burn DVD's of the important stuff... :) That's about the only thing that will ensure they are read-only.

You might want to look at giving them a web interface via some apache file-sharing type of software. That would give them some sort of web-nas view and you could more easily lock down the writes...

Matt
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What about checking the "Read-only" box in the main folder's Properties and then applying to all subfolders?

jsejcksn
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  • So far this is the only solution that will work on any computer and os. – iKarampa Sep 03 '10 at 08:18
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    Note that this can be circumvented if you want to. At least on Linux (and probably on Windows) you can change the read-only state (or ignore it), if you have root/Admin on the machine the drive is connected to. – sleske Apr 05 '11 at 11:03
  • I would also add that things like Ghost or CloneDisk can trample all over this. – 2-bits Jul 11 '12 at 20:32
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I just finished researching this exact thing and came up with the following companies that might be relevant:

NexCopy http://www.nexcopy.com/usb-secure-flash-drives/

SecuTech (Their UniKey DRIVE) http://www.esecutech.com/software-protection/unikey-family/unikey-family.html

Jason
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Addonics has a USB Read-Only portable cartridge system. simply insert your HDD 3.5" into it and it will be Read-Only (Write-Protected)

http://www.addonics.com/category/urd.php

abhay
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This is a low-level hardware solution as opposed to a permissions-based solution.

On a Unix system, you can use hdparm to set SATA/IDE device parameters. One of those parameters is a read-only value.

Here is an example assuming your device is scsi device b (sdb):

Turn on read-only value (CAREFUL!)

hdparm -r1 /dev/sdb

Turn off read-only value

hdparm -r0 /dev/sdb

Read the current value

hdparm -r /dev/sdb

from man hdparm

-r Get/set device readonly flag (DANGEROUS to set)

-R Get/set device write-read-verify flag

Community
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Jonathan Komar
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I think that you cannot ensure that your data will be only read, when you have to give disk to someone.

I'd advise you to make backup of your files, so that if something happens to data on your drive you'll always have a copy.

GingerPlusPlus
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and did not count upload time for 1.5 Tb...:)

So As I understand, you want to provide your friend hole drive but your friend need part of them? Or you want to provide disk "with many important files" to your friend to get him/her access to hole 1.5 Tb content? Its a life, a lot of examples around, are you 100% guarantee your friend will be "your friend" for all entire life? Nothing personal, But just want prevent wrong steps... I do advise you to protect your info with something like that http://www.password-protect-software.com/protect-folders.html But its only my IMHO

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.
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  • It is just the accidental deletion I need protection from. – iKarampa Sep 02 '10 at 22:28
  • Ok, at this point just hide it: Free methods: http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/how-to-lock-or-hide-a-folder-a-file-or-a-drive-on-the-computer/ Software: http://instantlock.net/ – S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Sep 04 '10 at 09:18
  • there's no real folder-protectors. All they can be BYPASSED. The real folder-protection is an "archive" (compression:Store) and password on it. Or alternative of that... But in this case if a part of the archive is damaged ... you know... – Jet Sep 11 '13 at 19:15
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Making a USB stick read only is done at the controller firmware level. From what I know, there is no USB hard drive which has the feature for read-only at the firmware/controller level. Like Jason said above, Nexcopy has the ability to make read-only USB sticks, but not USB hard drives.

27ragbag
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