Advice Wanted For External Hard Drive

[aneray]

Hello all

I have an external 650 gig hard drive with the usual music and films on it. I am just wondering whether it is possible to password protect an individual folder. The folder contains some old classics like Deliverance and Scum and because there is too much violence, sex and nudity on tv already I really don't want the kids watching it.


I am using Windows XP if it helps.

Cheers Neil

 

[screamlead]

Click on sharing and security - make folder private - it then asks if you want to password protect it - set your password and bobs ur uncle.
Or do a google search fro a proggy called folder lock or look on cnet downloads for something similar. :

 

[aneray]

Thanks for getting back to me screamlead.

I right clicked onto sharing and security and saw the checkbox which will make the folder private. For some reason I can't check the box because the writing is a lighter shade, if you know what I mean.

I looked for the Folder Lock program you mentioned but after downloading it, it turned out to be a trial version and to be honest I really don't want to be spending fourteen quid if it turns out to be a fake or a con.

 

[anthonyUK]

Hi,
To be able to assign permissions at a file or folder level the disk must be formatted as NTFS not FAT32 which is what yours is probably (the option being greyed out).
You can convert from FAT32 to NTFS by opening a cmd window (Start - Run - cmd)
Type CONVERT X: /FS:NTFS (x:= the drive letter assigned to your external drive) then sit back and wait for an hour or so.
You cannot go back to FAT32 without re-formatting e.g. losing the data.

For a free program Trucrypt might be a solution but you'll need to read up on it.

 

[BigYin]

Not sure I can help you with the password protection Neil, but a word of advice about external hard drives in general - they can -and do - die!

It's happened to me and plenty of my friends over the years.

So if you have movies etc stored ONLY on the external drive, when it dies you'll lose them....

I mention this simply because I recently fell foul of the same mistake :nono: :whistle: