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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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9 Answers9

6

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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2

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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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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