Hard drive security

[JoeThePhotographer]

I'd like to keep visitors from browsing my photo archives.  I'm not worried about big-time thieves, just casual browsers.

I am using Windows 7; visitors can use a non-password protected guest account.  All of my photos are on internal Drive D:, with a backup on an external drive that is usually connected (Drive M:).

Is there an easy way to tell Windows 7: "Don't let the guest account access Drive D: or Drive M:?"

I am not looking for entreprise-class security (if there is such a term); just a way to keep nosy but friendly people out of the archives.

Please help!

Joe

[Dan Zemke]

Joe,

Windows uses folders to control access, not physical drives or partitions. 

Move all your photos under one folder.  Right-click on this folder and select "Share with/Specific people" and double left-click on it.  Then remove Guest access.

And yes, this works this way on Windows 7 - I just tried it to make sure.

Dan

[JoeThePhotographer]

Dan,

Do I need to be logged in as Administrator to do this?  The choices seem very complicated to me...do you know of a short tutorial that teaches the meaning of all of the terms?

Joe

[Dan Zemke]

Do I need to be logged in as Administrator to do this?  The choices seem very complicated to me

You're using a pre-release version of Windows 7 and are asking about basic Windows admin privileges?

Dan

[JoeThePhotographer]

There's nothing to installing the Windows 7 RC; it's very polished.  And it's free until March of 2010.  Unfortunately, I liked it so much I ended up pre-ordering the upgrade. 

Joe

[Dan Zemke]

Joe -I pre-ordered Windows 7 too.

Yes, you need to have administrator privileges to control access. I'm unable to recommend any tutorials on administrating windows sharing settings.

Dan

[dandill]

To secure confidential files (in my case, on portable disks and on laptops), I use the free tool http://www.truecrypt.org/.

It works by creating an encrypted file which can be mounted on the OS (Linux, Mac, and Windows) as a disk. Un-mounted, the file contents are gibberish.

Since a password is required to mount the encrypted file as a disk, no user without the password can access the disk.

I have been using it for about a year, on XP and Vista, problem free.

Dan Dill

[JoeThePhotographer]

Dan,

I have been using PGP for encryption of truly sensitive data, and it's not free.  I haven't updated to the Vista/Win 7 version, so I've had to run it in a Windows XP virtual machine.

Thank you for pointing out Truecrypt; I will check it out.  However, doesn't that seem like overkill for hundreds of gigabytes photos?

Joe

[dandill]

Thank you for pointing out Truecrypt; I will check it out.  However, doesn't that seem like overkill for hundreds of gigabytes photos?

Once the TrueCrypt "disk" is created, its use is just like any other disk on the system. Essentially, set it and forget it.

My personal files are on a 10 GB TrueCrypt disk (about 60% used), replicated on a laptop and a desktop (different locations), on a USB portable disk (for synchronization of the two machines), and also on a third disk in a third location----all to protect my information from theft and from loss.

I would think a 500 GB "disk" (for a photo archive you would like to keep private, say) would work equally well, but I have not tried it.

By the way, I initially explored Windows tools, but my experience was that the more secure they are (Encrypted File System), the more careful one needs to be to not get locked out and with synchronizing across machines.

Most important to me. though, I am grateful to have found in TrueCrypt a secure, all-platform (Windows, Mac, and Linux) tool, based on vetted public domain code. I just hope it remains so problem free!

Dan Dill

[JoeThePhotographer]

Thanks Dan.  I didn't realize Truecrypt can encrypt a whole disk or partition.  It's very useful!

Joe