External Storage – How to Make a Partition Read-Only and Revert to Normal

partitioningprotectedread-onlywrite-protect

Sometimes, I have to give my external storage someone else. But, I am worry about files and folders which accidentally deleted, moved, changed etc… Therefore, it is enough that data on the disk can be readable. Writing support not desired.

So,

1) I want to make the partition readonly to prevent deleting and/or writing anything by anyone else.

2) When I take back my disk, I will revert it to readable/writeable mode again.

Any utility or method to achieve these goals?

Edit: I read about some hardware-based solutions and others are valid only at local PC. I am searching for globally valid and software-based solutions.

Solution:

A software-based solution exists for NTFS volumes. I wrote a PowerShell script to automate explained procedure:

PowerShell script to set/clear read-only flag of an NTFS volume

Best Answer

Everett's solution for NTFS volumes How to mount an NTFS partition read-only in Windows?

  1. Switch off "automount" by running mountvol.exe /N
  2. Connect disk to Windows (do not mount the disk)
  3. Run diskpart
    1. Enter list volume
    2. Enter select volume X
      (where X is the correct volume number from the previous command)
    3. Enter att vol set readonly
    4. Enter detail vol and ensure the read-only bit is set

Now you can mount the volume and it will be read-only.

To re-enable automatic mounting of new volumes, run mountvol.exe /E.

To remove the read-only flag, select the volume in diskpart and in step 3.3 enter att vol clear readonly.

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