Restrict Hard Disk Drive Access

[welby]

Hi,

does anyone know if it is possible to restrict access to an external USB Hard Drive based upon date/time

I know I can encrypt the external disk using Truecrypt which than asks for a password for access, but as far as I now it doesn't allow restriction based upon time.

[mattydinx]

http://www.mcafee.com/uk/products/device-control.aspx

May do what you're after

[DazzyD]

Whilst I can understand what you're asking, Mark, I must be honest and say I don't understand why. What benefit would you achieve by restricting the time that a hard drive can be accessed?

I can see a problem with what you are asking. Windows doesn't always write all data to a drive at the exact moment you'd expect it to. Sometimes it waits to write to the drive later (which is why you should never just unplug an external storage device without first making it safe using the "remove device" utility which will tell you when it's safe to unplug it). If your computer waits to write to the drive, then finds it can't access the drive when it wants to, it will cause an "drive inaccessible" error and you could lose data.

Hope this makes sense.

[welby]

Whilst I can understand what you're asking, Mark, I must be honest and say I don't understand why. What benefit would you achieve by restricting the time that a hard drive can be accessed?

I can see a problem with what you are asking. Windows doesn't always write all data to a drive at the exact moment you'd expect it to. Sometimes it waits to write to the drive later (which is why you should never just unplug an external storage device without first making it safe using the "remove device" utility which will tell you when it's safe to unplug it). If your computer waits to write to the drive, then finds it can't access the drive when it wants to, it will cause an "drive inaccessible" error and you could lose data.

Hope this makes sense.

Cheers Daz,

A DJ that works "exclusively" for me is covering a karaoke gig when I am on holiday and wanted to borrow my karaoke disk and I felt uncomfortable about that as he could always be tempted to copy my precious tracks.

It's all sorted now as he has purchased a job lot of sunfly disks.

But it's an interesting scenario - as I wanted to lock the disk for a day's access.

[welby]

http://www.mcafee.com/uk/products/device-control.aspx

May do what you're after

I think that's more about a central policy controller who can copy what onto a removeable drive - I was after the other way round. But thanks, very interestng.

[DazzyD]

Cheers Daz,

A DJ that works "exclusively" for me is covering a karaoke gig when I am on holiday and wanted to borrow my karaoke disk and I felt uncomfortable about that as he could always be tempted to copy my precious tracks.

It's all sorted now as he has purchased a job lot of sunfly disks.

But it's an interesting scenario - as I wanted to lock the disk for a day's access.

I see. From a simplistic point of view, if you don't fully trust him then don't give him the drive!

However, from a technical point of view, whilst I've no idea about preventing copying in a time-window such as you describe, there is a way to prevent someone copying your files whilst still giving them access to said files. It's a registry tweak and you can read more here:

http://www.exnol.com/prevent-file-data-copy-pc-usb-drive

It's not the perfect solution to what you are asking but, nevertheless, it is a potential solution. Besides, I've yet to unearth any software that does this task.

[welby]

I see. From a simplistic point of view, if you don't fully trust him then don't give him the drive!

However, from a technical point of view, whilst I've no idea about preventing copying in a time-window such as you describe, there is a way to prevent someone copying your files whilst still giving them access to said files. It's a registry tweak and you can read more here:

http://www.exnol.com/prevent-file-data-copy-pc-usb-drive

It's not the perfect solution to what you are asking but, nevertheless, it is a potential solution. Besides, I've yet to unearth any software that does this task.

Cheers Daz,

he's now purchased a set of sunfly - sweat over..lol