Can one drive on XP be accessed only by the Admin?

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Guest

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I have 2 hard drives in my computer. Both are formatted NTFS. The larger one contains WinXP Pro, the other is solely used for storage.

Is it possible to make it so that no other user on XP can access the drive, except the administrator?
 

blah

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yes, it is possible, just remove everyone and everything but admin from sharing.

..this is very useful and helpful place for information...
 

Novakain

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OK. This might make things more dificult, as it's probably a different way of doing things to what Blah was thinking, so you can ignore it if you like, but here's what I'd do:

1. Open My Computer

2. Click on Tools, Folder Options

3. Click on the view tab

4. Scroll down the list of advanced settings until you get to an option called use simple file sharing. Click to uncheck that box, then click on OK.

5. Right-click on the drive you want to limit access to, then click on properties

6. Click on the security tab.

7. Remove everyone from the group or user names list that you don't want to access the drive.

Be careful with security settings - especially if your user acount does not have Admin priveliges. The admin acount can always get around security though.
 
G

Guest

Guest
I tried as you suggested, but it told me that as soon as I reboot, it will revert back to being shared.
 

blah

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Yeah, I forgot to ask, what do you mean by access: write, read, see folders? Anyway, I don't think XP (what a garbage in this matter, or I am too stupid to find it) is not designed the way Win2k was. In Win2k I can set anything to "Access denied", in XP only your own folder (as far as I know), you can restrict users from writing anything into the drive, or folder, but I did not find the way to block users from even seeing the contents like it can be done in 2k. But I will search for a little more, will let you know.

..this is very useful and helpful place for information...
 
G

Guest

Guest
Thank you for checking.

By the way... there was no error. It just said that I couldn't.
 

Novakain

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Yeah, it freaked me out for a while too. You've got to disable Simple File Sharing (as listed above) under Windows XP to get the details that you get with Windows 2000. What Divine Wrath is saying is that when he tries to enable it, it tells him it will revert back to being shared....right?

Does this message about sharing come up after step 4 or after you've tried to remove permissions? Are you trying to remove permissions or are you trying to disable sharing?

Was this the message you got?:

"This share was created for adminitrative pruposes only. The share will reappear when the Server service is stopped and restarted or the computer is rebooted. Are you sure you wish to stop sharing D$?"<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by Novakain on 01/02/02 06:28 AM.</EM></FONT></P>
 

blah

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Ok, my bad, there is no way of "hiding" it from other users. They can see anything that is on the drive. But as I have said, you can restrict them from writing anything at all onto it. Sorry, bad news for you, heh, MS has to work on it, that is no good as far as I can see...

..this is very useful and helpful place for information...
 
G

Guest

Guest
Was this the message you got?:

"This share was created for adminitrative pruposes only. The share will reappear when the Server service is stopped and restarted or the computer is rebooted. Are you sure you wish to stop sharing D$?"

Yes, it was. I could find a way to remove the permissions for it either.
 

Novakain

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Thanks for the reply. It sounds like you're trying to disable sharing on that drive. Windows NT/2000/XP automatically shares out your drives as hidden shares (shares that cannot be seen if browsed from the network). As you've seen, Windows won't normally allow you to disable these shares. Sharing in this case doesn't apply to you as it deals with sharing the drive accross a network, not on your PC.

Under the properties box for drive D:, there should be a tab that says security (The setiings you're looking at I think are under the sharing tab). If you select that, it will give you a list of the users & their permissions assigned to that drive. You should be able to add/remove people from there.

Also, there is a way under Windows XP to hide the drive from being able to be seen through my computer, windows explorer and the command prompt using security policies. It's a bit involved, and I haven't had much to do with it outside of group policies on Domains, so I won't risk leading you astray.