Securing My Docs on FAT32
 

I'm running XP Pro, I just reformatted my disk with FAT32. It's a multi-user (family) system. I would like to be able to make the My Documents folder be private so others can't access my data (read: porn). How can I do this? I noticed that it is not done the same way as it is in NTFS: right click on My Docs >> Properties >> Sharing >> Check "Make This Folder Private".

Any help would be much appreciated.

I don't know that I can answer your question directly, but I for tend to hide sensitive folders in unlikely places with unlikely names. Depending on how computer savvy your family is, a hidden folder named System in the root directory would probably suffice.

fat32 doesnt really have security you'd need ntfs or a 3rd party piece of sofware

you can try to make a hidden folder with the attrib command

create a folder called test in the root directory, and create a folder named whatever you want uder that. Then drop to a command prompt and type the following:

attrib +r +a +s +h c:\test\*.* /s /d

go back to the desktop and open my comuter and the c drive
the test folder may or may not be there. If not actually go to the address bar and type c:\test

If it is there, go into the folder and type the same thing in the address bar (c:\test\whatever you named the folder). It should now be visible. You can move this folder anywhere you want and no one will know it is there. The olny reason to make a folder in a folder is that attrib sometimes has problems with just "attrib"ing a folder, so you attrib the whole directory and everything underneath it in the directory structure. This can cause a problem if done in a folder with actual data in it. If it doesn't work, let me know and I'll try and think of something else.

As previously stated, FAT32 doesn't provide the file security you're looking for. Hiding the folder works but is easy to locate.

Why don't you just convert to NTFS? You've got XP Pro.

Yeah, Id go with NTFS. Its so much better than FAT32. You can even set security down to file level. And you can convert with a reboot and only takes a few minutes.

Open a command prompt and type "convert /?" and following the bouncing help doc. Its easy.......

I converted from NTFS cuz it was a pain in the ass to get into if (read: when) shit goes (read: went) wrong. I lost a mobo, and cuz XP does hardware checking, it was a bitch to get into the HDD that was formatted with NTFS. So I was hoping to eliminate that problem by switching to FAT. But in doing so, I lost a functionality that I really liked. What I want is a way to have easy access to my stuff and no other users to be able to see it.

Do you know that you can plug a NTFS drive in another NT/2000/XP Pc and still read the information off the disk. But if you have set strong permissions on certain folders you may not be able to access them. You should always be backing your important data (aka porn) up anyway. Cause there is always a chance that the disk will completely shit, and regardless of FAT or NTFS you wont be able to get anything back.

Yes. These things I know. The whole point of setting strong permissions was to keep others out. But then they kept me out for a while. MOST of the porn was backed up, but I did lose some stuff here and there. So I'm guessing by the way things are going here, that there isn't a way to do what I want without 3rd party software. Thanks for all the ideas guys!

Another thing you could do is download PGP and make a password protected archive - and store all of your porn in it. The only problem would be decompressing and compressing the archive every time you wanted to look at it or add more porn.

Overall, I'd say to go to NTFS - you can get NTFSDOS disks, and there's rudimentary support in most Linux distros for NTFS.

But yea, not a lot you can do without NTFS - in terms of securing it. However, a folder like "C:\windows\system32\drivers\misc" could be a nice place to store your porn, as who'd look there?

Even with strong permissions the admin on the machine can always take ownership. I still think you should go NTFS.

You can always install a second copy of XP onto the hard drive and regain access to your files.

Now if you've used Windows EFS you will have trouble. But if the paranoia runs _that_ deep...