Hide my Hard Drive??

newbie2

Just a quick question,

Is it possible to hide part of your hd? I have a laptop and win xp. the network in college scans my comp when i log on to their network, I would like to make sure that the college can't see alot of my apps etc. Would a partion help or will I have to buy an external hd?

seamus

What kind of scan? A virus scan? This is installed locally, and any results shouldn't be transmitted to anyone. If they are, it should be trivial to change that setting.

If they do a port scan, just install a Firewall.

Capt'n Midnight

I reckon the colleges AUP covers that sorta issue.

If you have XP Pro then you could encrypt folders - I'd not recomend - make password disk etc. if you bite that bullet.

Or you could password individual data files.

If you have WAREZ on the PC then try a different forum..

SantaHoe

Capt'n Midnight wrote:

If you have WAREZ on the PC then try a different forum..

Yeah I was going to suggest something usefull, but maybe you should just leave your porn collection at home?
In fact the simplest solution to your problem is to just remove anything you don't want them to see.

skibum

SantaHoe wrote:

Yeah I was going to suggest something usefull, but maybe you should just leave your porn collection at home?
In fact the simplest solution to your problem is to just remove anything you don't want them to see.

Why don't you get down off your high horse and "suggest something usefull"?
Your suggestion could be of interest to others, there are plenty of reasons apart from dodgey software and mucky pics, that some one would like to keep data out of the way of prying eyes.

Ciaran500

http://www.softheap.com/cdvlock.html

Capt'n Midnight

skibum wrote:

Why don't you get down off your high horse and "suggest something usefull"?
Your suggestion could be of interest to others, there are plenty of reasons apart from dodgey software and mucky pics, that some one would like to keep data out of the way of prying eyes.

It's windows XP - probably Home.
This means that ANYONE with Admin rights, physical access or using any number of exploits has full control over the system. Since keyloggers exist you are looking at a removable drive as the only idiot proof method.

Yes it is possible to hide drives from windows, but it's real paint yourself into a corner stuff...

SantaHoe

skibum wrote:

Why don't you get down off your high horse and "suggest something usefull"?
Your suggestion could be of interest to others, there are plenty of reasons apart from dodgey software and mucky pics, that some one would like to keep data out of the way of prying eyes.

I'm not on my high horse at the moment, the glue factory swears he's being well looked after though.
Seriously though, I think the best policy is to not keep "sensitive data" on your laptop in the first place... if not just against network attacks, what if it got stolen? Laptops are an opportunist thiefs wet dream.

It's difficult to suggest anything that would definitly work, since he's given us no clue as to what kind of network he's connecting to.
For example he could be connecting to a domain where local security settings are passed down from a domain controller, giving him no real option but to take the scans and like them.

If you can, I suppose you could disable/stop the "server" service which essentially kills your ability to share folders, and that includes default administrative shares like C$ (which is the entire root of C:\) while still being able to use the networks internet connection... I'm not sure if this will stop the server scanning you while you're logging in though (anyone?).
Also disable services like telnet, task scheduler, remote registry... you could also try sticking something like zonealarm on the machine... this should at least stop the average muppet dicking around with your PC over the network once you're logged in.
In this case it comes down to sacrificing some functionality.
But even still, as capn' said, this isn't foolproof since your PC is still open to someone sitting down infront of it while you're off taking a wizz and any number of exploits.

Basically if it's anything you could get into deep shiit over with your college, just take it off, there's no point getting kicked out and screwing up your education over some bloody apps... or if it's really personal like your CV or diary or something, stick it on a USB keystick or something.
Its far better to not have to worry about it in the first place.

osmethod

Yes, if you can (have room) for another partition that would help.

Create a 2nd partition using "Computer Management - Disk Management". Right click on this new partition and select "Change drive letter and path". Click on the "Remove" button.

This will hide the drive for you. If you want it back again Right click on this new partition and select "Change drive letter and path" and this time select "Add".

This assumes you have admin rights.

Other alternative is to use partition magic to create the partition from bootable floppy. Then use "Ranish Partition Manager" to hide/unhide as required. A bit more work though but no admin rights required.

osmethod

skibum

Fair dues to the Capt'n and SantaHoe for getting down off dobbin, and making some very good suggestions.:D

That wasn't too hard, was it?

tzmndvl

http://www.worldstart.com/tips/file-management/password-prtct-fldrshtm.htm

Fionn

the best i've seen is Magic Folders there's a few other types around too but this works very well.

http://www.pc-magic.com/

check it out

Spunog UIE

used to like magic folders, very handy program.

Using PGP now, i like that it mounts a drive when you have it on. Very good.

http://www.pgpi.org/

Syth

Some kinda repartitioning was what I was thinking of, maybe put your sensitive stuffon the new partition and just not mount it? Could that work?

Of course as Gideon suggested, encryption would be your best bet. That way you could have all your files out in the open, on your desktop, whatever, but since they are encrypted no-one can read them. But for god's sake don't store your keys on the computer itself. Put them on a disk key or something.