Path: utzoo!censor!geac!torsqnt!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!wuarchive!uunet!gistdev!flint From: flint@gistdev.gist.com (Flint Pellett) Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc Subject: How to write protect c: but not d: ? Keywords: write protect Message-ID: <1027@gistdev.gist.com> Date: 26 Nov 90 16:44:19 GMT Distribution: comp Organization: Global Information Systems Technology Inc., Savoy, IL Lines: 35 I would guess that other people have faced this problem, so maybe someone can recommend a solution: Situtation: I have a system that get used by myself (for real work), by my wife (for accounting) and by my kids (to play games). A while ago I found out my son (7th grade) brought a diskette home from school and plugged it in and ran some stuff on it: ACK! So we had a big discussion about viruses and how he shouldn't do that again, but I would guess that only a certain part of that sunk in. He also inadvertently deleted the contents of a directory once (a little knowledge is dangerous) meaning I had to spend the time recovering it from backups. What I need is the ability to write-protect the C: drive, while leaving the D: drive read-write: then I could leave the binaries I don't want changed on C: and leave datafiles for things like games on D:. (Actually I have drives up to I:, and they are all on one 300MB disk: I'd like to be able to pick-and-choose which drives would be write protected.) Ideally, at boot-up time it would prompt me for a password, and if I gave it then C: would be read-write, if I didn't, it would be read-only. The only stuff I have seen similar to this write-protects all your hard drives, which is not helpful unless I were to restrict the kids to running off the floppies. I'm not worried about trying to protect myself from someone intentionally breaking in, I only need to protect myself from inexperience. The only thing I know of that would really work is always booting under UNIX and using VPIX-- but it would be nice if there were a solution for when I boot up under DOS. Any ideas? -- Flint Pellett, Global Information Systems Technology, Inc. 1800 Woodfield Drive, Savoy, IL 61874 (217) 352-1165 uunet!gistdev!flint or flint@gistdev.gist.com