Software to instantly "lock" entire drive in read-only mode?

I have an external usb harddrive on which I have stored a large number of MP3, AVI and other media files. I am looking for software to run on my Windows XP machine that can put, at the click of a button, a sort of lock on the entire drive whereby the data can be read and copied just as usual but cannot be altered in anyway (deleted or moved). At a second button press I want the drive to function as normal again.

Any suggestions would be much appreciated!

Reply 1 : Software to instantly "lock" entire drive in read-only mode?

Any software could be gotten around so the solution looks like:
http://www.wiebetech.com/products/USB-WriteBlocker.php

Bob

Reply 2 : Software to instantly "lock" entire drive in read-only mode?

Thanks for the reply Bob, but actually I am not looking for a solution that cannot be "gotten around", I am just looking for something so that when I am picking large numbers of files very quickly to copy (using windows explorer) like I often do, I do not cut or move the files by accident resulting in me losing or misplacing the data. Anyone know of some software that can do this, allow copying only?

Reply 3 : Software to instantly "lock" entire drive in read-only mode?

http://www.mydigitallife.info/2008/06/26/how-to-disable-write-access-to-usb-hard-disk-and-flash-key-drives/

Kees

Reply 4 : Software to instantly "lock" entire drive in read-only mode?

that claims it does it. Found it with google, don't have any experience with it. However, it's free, so worth a try:
http://www.shivaranjan.com/2008/09/14/write-protect-read-only-your-usb-drive-with-usb-write-protector/

http://www.techmynd.com/make-usb-and-disk-drives-read-only/ is another one. It even shows the registry entry to modify, so in stead of using the program you could make two reg-files on your desktop (one to protect, one to unprotect). Just click and acknowledge.

Please tell your experiences.

Kees

Reply 5 : Software to instantly "lock" entire drive in read-only mode?

Jeez Keez, thats sorted me I reckon!

That first link you left sent me to a nice little application that worked fine but then I followed your second link and decided to make an AutoHotkey script to change the registry value on keypress. The only downside to either of these solutions is that it doesn't effect currently mounted devices. In other words, you have to change the setting before you connect the device or if its already connected then disconnect, change the setting, then reconnect. Not ideal but it works. Here's how to do it with AutoHotkey:

1) download and install AutoHotkey: http://www.autohotkey.com/download/

2) make a new file called AutoHotkey.ahk in the Startup folder of your start menu (or anything else you like!)

3) open this file in notepad, paste the following code and restart. pressing WindowsKey+u should then turn on/off usb device write protection.


#u::
If LockState=on
{
RegWrite, REG_DWORD, HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, SystemCurrentControlSetControlStorageDevicePolicies, WriteProtect, 0
LockState=off
MsgBox, USB Write Protection`n`n - OFF -
}
Else
{
RegWrite, REG_DWORD, HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, SystemCurrentControlSetControlStorageDevicePolicies, WriteProtect, 1
LockState=on
MsgBox, USB Write Protection`n`n - ON -
}
Return

Reply 6 : Software to instantly "lock" entire drive in read-only mode?

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/165721 tells you how to eject the drive programmatically. You must manually insert it again, but you can't forget that, because the ejected drive can't be accessed. Seems a rather minor nuisance to me.

Searching for EJECT USB UTILITY or EJECT USB PROGRAMMATICALLY or DOWNLOAD EJECT USB or seaching on the file management sections of the usual download sites might even find an executable program that does it (from a command line in batch file, something like eject h:).

Kees