Folder Lock

Dear Signode

Many software are available to lock the folder, but all are providing there own folder in which we can save files If you want a full version folder lock I can mail it to you, just inform me on my mail ID vikrant235029@gmail.com

Thanks

Hi

If you are not selling folder lock software why don't you publish details in the open forum to the benefit of all those who see it.

Encrypted archives (rar, zip etc.) may also be locked by passwords, but then, it's not ready for random access as an active folder

Correct, its really the best and cheapest method.

What I was talking about before was that just reducing access under windows is ludicrously easy to crack....

Its actually better to re-code the data in the folder with good proprietary software with a 256 bit or better algorythm and a password that ONLY you know of....as there are plenty of ways that allow access into a locked folder, for example DOS on NTFS on a floppy, Linux etc etc.....and probably a good many other ways that I have never even heard of......

You will be under a false sense of security to my mind......

Dear Andy,

Do you know of any such software? I remember we studied several such algorithms such as MD5 but I have never come across any such commercial software. Most I understand are not available to the public.

Even 128 bit will be very difficult to crack even with a brute force attack!

I do not mind even 64 bit encryption!

There is plenty of encryption softwares available, try searching on the internet.

I Germany we get "Free" offers, but unless you read German well, that will not help. I expect there are such offers in your country too in computer magazines.....or buy something after reading test infos....

Steganos is a name, Guardian of Data another, but there are many more......

I haven't used any of them (no need for such software), so I cannot advise, sorry...

Depending on your Windows user rights, determined by your IT department, you can set security settings for any folder in Windows to allow/deny priviledges to specific users and groups in your network. Just right-click the folder, click Properties, and go to the Security tab.

Alternatively, you can freely download the program Winzip, and password protect your data that way.

As far as I know all those windows passwords can be cracked! I myself had to crack it once. My notebook hard disk crashed but still I could use the hard disk as an external USB hard disk. Then i faced a problem because my Windows password settings would not allow me access to folders and also there was no provision to enter the password. I used a different technique to get the data without password.

I am not sure about Winzip. But I am sure there are enough password crack programs on the internet.

In fact I have the experience once cracking a password protected MS access database because my staff forgot the password.

So unless it is encrypted with the use of a purposely made hardware chip I think it is always vulnerable.

I would agree with you on anything that MS does with its products, but the companies I named, encrypt the data using a password, the data can be seen, but makes no sense at all till the password is typed in.....

It is possible to have the code on say a USB stick, so long as the stick is inserted, the data can be looked at, remove the stick and the data is unreadable.

The WinZip idea would work as well......and very cheap!

It's true that windows passwords can be cracked. You can try to use password manager for free or search cracking tool on Google.

In case it's a multi-user defined XP, and you're defined as an admin there, right-click a given folder, go to "properties" then "Sharing", and check "make this folder private"

But put a DOS floppy in and you can read it still......that is simply NOT a safe method, only if all the other user are dummies......sorry!

Sorry about what?

How can you read it by putting a DOS floppy in?

Using DOS with NTFS format(if the hard disk is NTFS formatted), or any DOS if only FAT formatted as many still are (NTFS format is better in most ways and NTFS DOS is slightly more difficult to get hold of) none of the Windows commands are active, you can read and copy anything that is there.....

Even if a folder is hidden, you can still look at it and copy everything you wish.....if the PC has a CD or DVD burner, you can also copy onto their formats!!! All from a boot floppy or CD.....(you can make a bootable cd with NTFS DOS on it, the PC treats it almost like a giant floppy!)

My "sorry" was that I was maybe labeling some people PC dummies......

This is the first time I hear of an NTFS version regarding DOS as an active operating system for RAM and IO resource management.

- Where can one get hold of such system?

- What would it be used for?

- By which version of NTFS would it operate? (for instance, NTFS v.6 cannot "see" into partitions smaller than 132 Gigabyte - would it be mounted on more advanced version?)

- How would it access resources with address-base greater than 16-bit depth, given it's original shell command-base?

- How would it be able to "see" files, folders, and partitions beyond 2 Gigabyte?

Besides, if I recall correctly, by operation of it's file system (as defined on any medium's boot-sector), DOS's double-word 8 bit system, can only "see" eight-characters-long ASCII filenames.

Are you sure it's DOS you're talking about?

Erratum:

- By which version of NTFS would it operate? (for instance, NTFS v.6 cannot "see" into partitions bigger than 132 Gigabyte - would it be mounted on more advanced version?)

No idea, I keep my partitions to usually less than 100GB, I only have one that is larger than that.....in the private world and most companies, they do not usually have such large partitions......

Well, I do (for video editing of uncompressed segments - without RAID chaining), and by the time my first 250 GB IDE hard disk arrived, I was still running the first XP version, the one which had to download SP2. It had the same version of NTFS as Windows 2000 had, which was 6.0.

I was very surprised to learn that while partitioning a virgin disk, it could not see any volume beyond 132, and couldn't format any partition beyond 128 GB, so that my then-current XP was no good for that disk (Western Digital).

Only a year later the second version of XP was launched, the one which already included SP2 built in, which could "see" and format such volumes.

Furthermore, if you had any partition created in v 6.0, and you passed it through v.7 disk integrity check or defrag, the v 6.0 disk would crash - so, this is pretty much a warning to anyone attempting to do this

DOS with NTFS access is sold by some company, they even let you download a version (with not many utilities) for free. The free version will not let you crack a hard disk though in any detail.....

Do a search on the web.....if you want it.

You can take out the hard disk put it in an external hard disk enclosure and use it as a USB drive. After that you can bypass admin password (in fact I once did it because op.system of my note book HD got corrupted) and access all the data. Windows passwords are not secure at all. I have cracked MS ACCESS passwords too. Do not get alarmed! All done for ethical reasons.

Oh, I'm not the least worried about ethics here. As I understood, the original post was about keeping some other users on the same XP platform, possibly other family members, from prying into specific folders, so, my instinctive reply was about going mainstream on this, and use XP's natural resources such as it's multi user capacity and admin authority, without having to resort to hacking or encryption.

I was merely pointing to the obvious.

What you say is true and relatively easy for anyone with only mild Windows/PC experience to do.........

If anyone wants to get hold of NTFSDOS, please check the following link, this company is one of several producing DOS for NTFS drives.

This one even allows a Win98 PC to checkout and defrag, NTFS drives, that normally Win98 could not even see, let alone defrag!!:-

http://www.free-av.com/antivirclassic/avira_ntfs4dos.html