File sharing (or rather files to not be shared)?

arciere

JustAnotherSaver wrote: »

If it's a case of a simple double click to open a folder then that's one thing - but then that doesn't answer my question since they'd be able to see the folder in order to double click it, which i don't want.

You can't hide folders in Windows (not in the way you would like to).
A folder can be hidden, but it will be hidden for all users. And users (at least admin users) can change an option to make all hidden folders visible.

JustAnotherSaver

So in that sense then it is better to keep as i have been doing.


OS installed on 2 drives.

Have storage drives.

Remove drive letters, job done.


Or are you going to suggest that only takes a couple clicks to get around? See while i actually don't know about the way we've discussed earlier, so i'll take your word for it that it's the simplest thing ever to get around, i've actually ran this setup for 10 years so i know full well what it takes to get around so i'd be curious if you thought it "only took a couple clicks" to get around also.

JustAnotherSaver

DoaM wrote: »

No point in getting @rsey with me

:wall::wall:It wasn't with YOU. Jeez. People are so quick to jump to conclusions on here.

In fact it wasn't even at the others.


It was more the fact the others had suggested that any idiot would get around it whereas you suggested the user would have to have a bit of knowledge - which is what i was asking .... does the user need to have a bit of know-how.

arciere

JustAnotherSaver wrote: »

So in that sense then it is better to keep as i have been doing.


OS installed on 2 drives.

Have storage drives.

Remove drive letters, job done.


Or are you going to suggest that only takes a couple clicks to get around? See while i actually don't know about the way we've discussed earlier, so i'll take your word for it that it's the simplest thing ever to get around, i've actually ran this setup for 10 years so i know full well what it takes to get around so i'd be curious if you thought it "only took a couple clicks" to get around also.

Ok, it feels like we are going round in circles.
To be clear: if data security is important, you can't use Windows permissions. That's it, no matter how you want to look at it. If you are not bothered, should someone get access to someone else's data, then it's fine.

JustAnotherSaver

arciere wrote: »

You can't hide folders in Windows (not in the way you would like to).
A folder can be hidden, but it will be hidden for all users. And users (at least admin users) can change an option to make all hidden folders visible.

A-ha! Finally something that i actually do have a bit of knowledge on. That is nonsense!


I've been doing it for 10 years so don't tell me it can't be done

arciere

JustAnotherSaver wrote: »

A-ha! Finally something that i actually do have a bit of knowledge on. That is nonsense!


I've been doing it for 10 years so don't tell me it can't be done

And how exactly have you been doing it?

Neil_Jones

JustAnotherSaver wrote: »

To be perfectly honest, i don't really know how else to say it. I've already said what i want to achieve.

You both must know more about computing than me so on your end it must be frustrating that i'm not getting what angle you're coming from but equally it's frustrating that you don't get the angle i'm coming from when i feel i explained it quite simply (obviously i explained it poorly which is nothing new i must admit).

With the greatest of respect this comes across as a "I will be happy when I hear what I want to hear" type of situation. So if I was to tell you yes it can be done, you would be happy, yes?

So for example - i install on Drive 1 Windows 10 & create 2, 3, 4 etc users (let's go for 2 for simplicity).

I keep my bank login details for example (i'm surprised nobody has suggested the har-har very funny bit yet but there's still time...) in C:My Documents.

I suspect that none of the other users can access this. Same way if they did the same then i can't access theirs (assuming we're all passworded).
If that's the case then i get that.

But i don't like keeping files on the C drive anyway. C drive fails to boot or just dies. Then you're in to the realms of hoping you backed up recently and didn't lose too much.

So the files will be kept on a separate internal drive. My concern here is that each and every user can see everything that is on that drive as it's a separate drive.

They WILL need access to the drive, for their own files, but they don't want to be seeing each others files on that drive.

Windows doesn't work like that, it's basis of user security is on the user profile and the user account on the C drive. Anything else you have to set up manually.

This might be of interest:
https://www.online-tech-tips.com/computer-tips/set-file-folder-permissions-windows/

The only caveat I'm going to give you is that if you're not careful setting up custom permissions you'll lock everybody out including administrators to that folder.

I'm not asking whether it's what someone else would do. I'm not interested in that. I'm not asking if someone thinks this is the best thing to do either. I'm looking to see how to do it.

The whole point of a web forum is to seek ideas. What you've done is what you've done. You've also spoken about "thinking" about going the conventional way. There is more than one conventional way to do things in Windows and again with the greatest of respect rather than wanting to know how to do stuff (which is something Google could have told you), posting on a forum seems to imply you're open to new ideas. So External drives, NAS drives, cloud drives are all valid contributions to your post.

JustAnotherSaver

arciere wrote: »

And how exactly have you been doing it?

Windows 7 for example:


Drive 1: yours (OS installed on)

Drive 2: mine (OS installed on)
Drive 3: you keep your files on this
Drive 4: I keep my files on this.


I'll not go through the installation process. Let's assume the OS has now been installed and we're on a dual boot setup and we can currently see all 4 drives in My Computer.


I boot to your Drive 1


Control Panel>Admin Tools>Computer Management>Disk Management.


Yes i'm well aware there's a shortcut for it but i forget it so this is the way i do it.


Select my Drive 3 > right click > change drive letter and paths > remove drive letter.
Do the same for Drive 4.


Now you can't 'see' my stuff from within your My Computer - therefore it's hidden from you.
I can do the same within my Disk 3 so now your stuff is hidden from me.


Sure you can boot to my Disk 3 also on the dual boot, but it's passworded. You can't get in.




Now you can say that that isn't whatever you had in mind when you were talking about hiding something and whatever about permissions but the fact is - it's now hidden from you. Can you see it? No. So it's hidden.

DoaM

JustAnotherSaver wrote: »

It was more the fact the others had suggested that any idiot would get around it whereas you suggested the user would have to have a bit of knowledge - which is what i was asking .... does the user need to have a bit of know-how.

Yes ... or at least know in general terms what to search for on Google.

But if said user account does not have admin privileges then any info they find would be pointless as they wouldn't be able to act on it.

So the simple solution is ... don't let the other user accounts (apart from your own) have admin rights. (Together with my advice in my previous post).

arciere

Ok, after you have spent hours removing a letter from a drive, I will go back there and re-assign a letter to that drive.

Problem solved.

Actually, that's even worse. Because, since all the data is on a different drive, I could easily (on purpose or by mistake) format your drives or remove the partitions.

To be honest, having a computer with 4 drives just to 'hide' data...you would probably be better off just using a second computer.