USB Pen Drive

[ForeverBlind]

Hi,

I want to put a set of folders containing drawing files on to a number of usb pen drives and distribute them within my company.

I would like to make all the files and folders read only so they cannont be edited or deleted in anyway. I have tried a few programs that seem to make the folder read only but not the files and the program has to be running in order to keep the read only status.

Any help would be much appreiciated.

Regards
Foreverblind

 

[anmont]

Well,
If you simply change your source files to read only, it should copy the file attributes and the folder attributes to each of the copied locations. Another comment is that many USB Drives have a button that will make the entire drive read only.

 

[ForeverBlind]

Hi,

The problem with just changing the source files to read only is that anyone can simply reverse the process therefore taking the read only attribute off.
You say many usb drives have a read only activation button, is this found in the properties dialog? As the pen drive im currently using does not seem to have this option.

Cheers
Foreverblind

 

[anmont]

Hello,

No typically this is physically on the unit itself, normally just a switch (and the user can just as easily turn this setting off). Unfourtunatly, I cannot think of many options other than this to lock the files. Maybe consider a network share or burning these files to disk or if it is a picture. Also what kind of files are you sharing? Some have this kind of protection built into the file standard. (i.e. excel or acrobat). However if your main concern is security, then these aren't your solution. If you are just worried about people accidentally writing over these files or saving their changes... then it is fine.

And if you are really stuck on this idea, maybe you can

 

[BASSMASTER]

What kindof file is it? Most database, wordprocessing programs like Excel / Word have the option to secure the document with a password. What program are your files in ?

 

[joshd]

my usb pen that has now broken had a button on the side, which when on made you type in a password to acess the disk. bit silly really, people can just turn it off again, cant they. the same goes for the read-only switch.

 

[ForeverBlind]

Hi,

The files are mainly .dwg (Autocad files).. Basically i just want to give these files to certain people without the worry of them being deleted really. I used a few programs which locks the drive but you have to have the software installed on your machine.

Its not the end of the world if i cannot find a solution but i know that once i distributed say 50 of these memory sticks and ppl start deleting them im going to have to update ones of already sent out, which is going to get annoying Engineers hey! hehe....

Cheers guys!
ForeverBlind