Assigning privacy settings to a secondary drive

Hi Bob ..

The secondary drive is an internally installed drive with the assigned drive lettering D: ...

My Primary drive (C is only 20 GB, and with all the programs and such I have loaded in I'm using a little over 16.5 GB ..

The installed secondary Drive (D is 20 GB, and it's wide open ... I'd ideally like to set it up to be the 'My Documents' drive and store all current files on it (as well as pics and such) but I'd like it to remain private from Guest users ..

I am Self Employed, so I have invoicing, scanned files and receipts, etc saved into My Documents, but also do have a need for Guest Users on my system (and Shared Files) ..


So .. ideal situation:

Primary HDD / C: Drive @ 20 GB for program files, etc ..

Secondary HDD / D: Drive @ 80 GB for My Documents, etc ..

Both drives secured and private from Guest Users ... all common files in Shared Files for GF and Bookkeeper and 'guests' ..


I plan to pick up a large size external HDD for backups .. I recently (last week) did a full format and re-install of all my OS and software ..
I used a friends external HDD to make a backup of the OS install and drivers w/ all activations, and all MS updates up to SP3 (current to date), then I did a second backup after I installed all 'necessary' software, their activations and updates ...

So now I have a quick and clean backup to go to if there is a need to, without having to go through the whole OS install again (what a pain in the butt) ..

With these backups on an external, I am safe from disaster ... now when I pick up my own external HDD, I can routinely do weekly backups of the secondary drive (D that has all my data stored on it as just a full drive backup without picking up all the unnecessary stuff on C: ..


.. Because of the files I keep, I definitely want the secondary drive (D to be private/secure settable ...

.. Can this be done .. ???

Thanks Bob .. this worked perfectly and gave me exactly what I needed to achieve ..

Know what still bugs me with XP though (maybe this change with Vista) is that Guest Users still have complete access to the Programs file, Windows file, settings, etc ..
The only thing that?s protected is the My Docs folder and it's content ..

... This doesn't make sense to me .. I think the more sensitive things like Program files should also be password protected under the Admin and not accessible to Guest unless specifically (and maybe individually) designated ..

But that?s just my opinion ? *shrug* ..


.. Anyway ... I accomplished what I needed ..

Have a great day ...

Thanks again Bob ...
.. Bill

I successfully moved/created a My Documents folder in my secondary drive (D .. it's password protected ..

Now ... what I wish to know is, can I make the entire drive protected ??

Example .. someone signs in as Guest. They can see the folders listed in the D: drive (my pictures, my music, etc), but when they try to open the folders they are blocked out ...

.. that's good

But perfect scenario would be to have the privacy setup for the entire drive itself (password protected) so any guests signed in would not even be able to select the drive and therefore be unable to even see it's folders ..


.. Can this be done ??

.. Bill

things that can easily be done in XP Pro.

With XP Home you are going to need to boot the computer and log into the ADMINISTRATOR account in Safe Mode.

Once logged in as ADMINISTRATOR (not as your usual self) you will discover that you now have a security tab on drive, file, and "folder" properties and from this tab you can set permissions for drives and "folders" and even specific files which allow or restrict access to groups or specific accounts.

It pays to invest in the business OS for a business machine as security is simpler to control.