Read Only Drive

Question

Hi There, 

First of all i will tell you all that i am a computer shop owner. I do troubleshooting and installation of windows and softwares. My Problem is, i have 1 hardisk in which i have stored all the necessary softwares. When the customer demand about a specific software, i use my external Hardisk to connect to his PC/Laptop. Some customers computer's are infected with virus. Is there any way that i protect my hardisk from their computer's virus.

Is there any way that i make my haridisk read only so that whenever i attach it to the other pc/laptop, nothing gets inside it. I mean nothing can go inside my hardisk but i can access it to install softwares. So that my hardisk remains secure and their virus wont enter in my hardisk?

I tried to make my hardisk read only using the windows. I mean by right clicking on the hardisk drive and making it read only in properties but that didn't worked. I need something else so that i make my hardisk read only so that no one can use it or modify it (especially viruses) without removing read only from it.

Thanks :)

Answer 1

Hi Jamal. I'm Greg, an installation specialist and 8 year Windows MVP, here to help you.

Setting External drive to Read Only using Security permissions would only work on the PC it's set for: http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-1627149/se...

Since you want the volume to be Read only on any other PC it's attached, then you need to assign the Read Only flag using Diskpart to the external volume: http://searchenterprisedesktop.techtarget.com/a.... You can do this by determining the volume in Diskpart to run the command, or use the script the author provides.

I hope this helps. Feel free to ask back any questions and let us know how it goes. I will keep working with you until it's resolved.

Answer 2

As i mentioned earlier that i am a computer shop owner and i have to install the softwares and stuff in other computers, so i had to connect my external hardisk into their computers. But they can't do anything to my hardisk as i dont give them, but the thing is, the virus in their computers infect the files in my hardisk, if my hardisk is write protected or just read only then it wont infect my hardisk. i will just install the softwares and thats it. the virus in their pc wont effect my hardisk. Thats why i need to know if there is possible to make my hardisk readonly to every other pc that i connect it with.

Answer 3

The link you posted, it contains the information to block access of my Usb on just my PC, i done the steps and i wasn't able to formate it or write anything to it, but when i connected to the other pc, i was able to formate and write on it. This didn't helped me with my problem. I want to block the access of the hardisk on the other pc so that the other person cannot change my files in the hardisk.

Answer 4

The link you shared contain the 3rd party softwares to Protect my PC from the USB viruses by disabling my Usb ports (making them read only). But i want the utility tool that will make my Usb read only not my PC ports so if i plug it to the infected Pc then it wont harm my usb data

Answer 5

Nothing out of the box, meaning Windows 10 does not have that capability.

But you can use 3rd party products.

I haven't tested any myself so I can't say for sure which ones are the best.

But this site has some suggestions, and they are normally a reputable site that well use here at MS community.

http://www.thewindowsclub.com/protect-usb-flash...