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Under Windows 7, what would be the easiest way to make data on an external hard drive or usb flash drive such, that it cannot be deleted nor overwritten, using various (regular, nothing that would fit into "security" category) software like word processors, image viewers and so on.

The idea is to make the data on the disc/drive non-modifiable.

Rook
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  • format drive at vendor tools and update firmware – STTR Jun 11 '15 at 19:05
  • @STTR - Could you elaborate? – Rook Jun 11 '15 at 23:35
  • @Shevek - Just saw the answer. Will try that approach tomorrow. – Rook Jun 11 '15 at 23:35
  • @Idigas External USB device is best to imagine from the hardware and software. diskpart helps at 1% of cases. Need to find a manufacturer of memory chips, which will depend on the firmware. And need to find the device manufacturer that will give you the manufacturer's firmware tools and low-level formatting. In most cases, it is all the formatting of the manufacturer, followed by returning an error through an indefinite period. If the firmware and formatting problem usually does not come back, or return much later. Problem is that setting on the USB device, and not in the flags section NTFS. – STTR Jun 12 '15 at 05:40

1 Answers1

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Approach 1: Set the following value to write protect ALL connected USB devices. You may have to unplug and reconnect the device after setting WriteProtect for it to take effect.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\StorageDevicePolicies\WriteProtect

http://www.ghacks.net/2011/03/18/how-to-enable-write-protection-of-usb-devices-under-windows

Alternate Approach For a specific set of files (ie: a rescue disk), you may consider storing the files on an SD card that has a hardware lock switch. Pair this with a USB adapter and you have a solution that the OS can't override. Unfortunately, this won't work for existing USB hard drives and flash drives.

Steven
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  • Aware of SD cards switch, but in this case I'm looking primarily for a solution for an external hard drive. Still have to look into the Approach 1. – Rook Jun 11 '15 at 23:35