How Do I Block Access To a HDD With XP On It?

Okay so I have built yet another computer for someone. They have no idea what they are doing on a computer and have destroyed the previous 3 computers I have built by, damaging removable media such as drives, wifi dongles, wifi cards and successive o/s's, we are now up to 15 reinstalls. I have agreed to build one last system. It is built like a tank, nothing to break, but i need to utterley ban the operator from any critical software systems. I need to ban htem from accessing my C drive [not just the folders on the C drive] which have XP and program file on. Then I need to make sure they cannot install any new programs anywhere on the sytem including the second HDD, D. Finally I need to allow them access only to a fraction of the programs on C basically office and the net, nothing else, not even control panel. I am tearing my hair out trying to find a free utility to do this, and have my doubt about the pay options I have seen. Any ideas?

 

LOL yeah I thought of telling them that with a few other choice words as well. I have solved part of my problem, a great piece of software called HD Locker, cant remeber where I picked it up now, but will post when i do. You can lock a drive, and if you place the software within the drive you are locking then happy days. As I am running a seperate admin account, the new owner using a limited account, I can access the drive and unlock it whenever I want, but he cannot. However, I still have to find a way to password protct the other drive, a file drive as the HD locker only works on one drive.

 

>> I have solved part of my problem, a great piece of software called HD Locker, cant remeber where I picked it up now, but will post when i do. You can lock a drive, and if you place the software within the drive you are locking rik_na <<

I agree. At only 176 KB this HD-Locker is a great tiny security utility and you can’t beat the price: it’s free!

For those of you who have never heard of it; HD-Locker is developed by AZPC (azpc.no-ip.org) and is a very easy-to-use freeware application that enables users to prevent accessing any hard drive on your computer by hiding it or denied the access to it.

The latest version v2.0, which I believe was released in August 2006, allows the user to lock one drive or all drives, hide one drive or all drives or apply the both actions. You can also apply any action for the "current user only" or for all users within the PC's Administrator.

Important Note: For whatever reason, it appears as though the AZPC developer's website (azpc.no-ip.org) is frequently "unavailable" or down; so if you cannot reach that site; I'd suggest going to download.com and searching for HD-Locker 2 there.

Also many freeware sites still carry the earlier download for this HD-Locker utility (version 1.0). Therefore download.com is probably your best bet if you'd like to give the very latest version of this utility a try!

Good Luck!