Hi guys
I am developing all my web related files in the D drive of my computer. Now that I am going to move to a public place with my computer, I was wondering if there is a way so that I can protect this drive from viewing / modifying by other ppl. I want to keep the rest of my computer open for all though.
In case I can’t protect (password) my D drive, I would like to password my whole site, wondering, is it possible ?
I am using XP.
Thanks friends.
Hello
You can password protect a folder by right clicking it and selecting properties then click the sharing tab and select “make this folder private”
Hope that helps.
Hi Flash Guru
Thanks for the tips, only problem is that I can not click on “make this folder private” as the check box is disabled.
Any way to make it Ok ?
Thanks agian.
Hello
I am able to click mine. Maybe it has to do with the way my comp is set up to have multiple users or something. 
I’m going to bet on that. I have only one account set-up on my XP, and the “check to make private” box isn’t activated either.
It has to do with whether or not the drive is formatted in NTSF or not, as NTSF is required for password protecting folders.
All my drives are formatted in NTFS and I can’t check that box either as it’s greyed out.
Well, what i found is that when i tried to do the same with a folder from my bookmarked area, left side of the browser, it worked, but when I wanted to try to do the same going inside through ‘my computer’, its not working any more.
Hmmmm
To make your folders private
Open My Computer.
Double-click the drive where Windows is installed (usually drive (C: ), unless you have more than one drive on your computer).
If the contents of the drive are hidden, under System Tasks, click Show the contents of this drive.
Double-click the Documents and Settings folder.
Double-click your user folder.
Right-click any folder in your user profile, and then click Properties.
On the Sharing tab, select the Make this folder private so that only I have access to it check box.
Notes
To open My Computer, click Start, and then click My Computer.
This option is only available for folders included in your user profile. Folders in your user profile include My Documents and its subfolders, Desktop, Start Menu, Cookies, and Favorites. If you do not make these folders private, they are available to everyone who uses your computer.
When you make a folder private, all of its subfolders are private as well. For example, when you make My Documents private, you also make My Music and My Pictures private. When you share a folder, you also share all of its subfolders unless you make them private.
You cannot make your folders private if your drive is not formatted as NTFS.
It may be due to the fact that the drive is not part of your user profile, as indicated. You could take all the files you want to protect and add them to a compressed (zipped) folder and then password protect that. -OR- If the drive is a physically seperate drive (i.e., not a partition of the C: drive) you could simply disable the drive in the device manager and no one else, unless they had administrator rights, could re-enable it, effectively removing the drive from view or use.
As Administrator in Safe-mode (in WinXP Home, in Pro you don’t need to go into safe-mode) you can access and change the security/access permissions, based on user. So you could, for instance, make the entire drive accessable to you and Administrator only. (I wouldn’t suggest removing Admin rights to the drive as Windows will need to do its thing on boot - no access, no drive)
I recommend doing quite a bit of research on Windows permissions before you make any big changes (sooooo much easier in *nix…) I had to reinstall after completely locking myself out of my drive once :o
Obviously, I’m not the best at Win permissions, maybe someone else has more input?
Thing is that I was not thinking to disable it completely, as I am using the computer regularly. Only that there is a good chance that my computer may be used by ppl other than me in my absence, and was thinking to make the D drive private, as its in this I have put all my important files.
Normally, making a drive private involves, what I have understood so far, is to right click the drive, followed by a click on the sharing and security menu. A small thing opens out telling that sharing files may be risky etc. with a link to do the sharing, and once you click on that link, you see that famous ‘disable’ check box where it seems quite a few of us want to click.
The box is not disable, atleast in my computer, when we do the same with a folder that we found in our IE browser. To understand what I am telling, click on the bookmark tag at the top, just after search. Your bookmarked sites will become visible on this at the left hand side, try to create a folder there if you don’t have one, and once you find a folder, give it a try. The famous check box is not disabled here.
But …