Comments on: Secure Private Folders Making Inaccessible and Undeletable

By: noha

noha — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 15:23:29 +0000

hey tanmay sir,
i locked my f drive using the following command
” cacls f: /e /p everyone:n ” and it got locked
and then i opened cmd as administrator and then i tried to unlock my f: drive using the command ‘ cacls f: /e /p everyone:f ” but its not opening its saying acess denied.

By: Viral

Viral — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 11:31:00 +0000

Hey It work Thanks man…… can u give any such command that can also denial copy and cut option…..
I don’t Want to use any Software……….. this slight mistake in your tricks i.e corrected by me …. so the complete command is …..

cacls path-of-folder /e /c /d %username% — this will make folder inaccessible and undeletable
cacls path-of-folder /e /c /d %username% — this bring back to normal mode…..

By: Asif Raza

Asif Raza — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 16:30:20 +0000

i made a file inaccessible on desktop successfuly and reaccessible too but the problem in your command is that in windows 7 a kid can also delete it if he will press SHIFT+DELETE
because if you want to delete it even in inaccessible mode just press shift+delete it will be removed permanently

By: Asif Raza

Asif Raza — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 16:30:35 +0000

i am using windows xp sp3 with ntfs file system and i am single user i donot know how to make my folder inaccessible on the desktop screen,i am the administrator of this computer but sometimes my friends can use this computer and i want to save my data from my friends, i wrote the command in command prompt as under
c:Documents and SettingsAdministratorDesktopcacls one /e /c/ /d %Admin%
because when i check my coputer’s properties it is registered to Admin so when i entered in the command prompt the following message appered no mapping between account names and security ids was done
please guide me through my mail id is as under
asifnaqwi@gmail.com

By: Tanmay

Tanmay — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 07:34:54 +0000

put %username% rather than admin when you are logged in with the admin user privilege.

By: Himalay

Himalay — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 01:57:24 +0000

hello tanmay,
its not working in my pc win7
its showing error “Invalid parameter ‘admin’”
now what i have to do??

By: mudaser

mudaser — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 14:18:14 +0000

hi tanmay
i have locked the folder sucessfully,after that i have format the c: (drive),same NTFS(filesystem) is there before formating and after formating,now iam trying to unlock the folder but it is not working???… please help me

By: maddy

maddy — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 15:20:47 +0000

tanmay iam using win xp kindly teach me as easiest as possible

By: Tanmay

Tanmay — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 18:04:39 +0000

@Maddy: I think you are doing mistake to specify the file path.

By: maddy

maddy — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 12:20:09 +0000

tanmay iam getting that system cannot find the specified file bro

By: maddy

maddy — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 11:55:13 +0000

hi Tanmay bro i think u remember me.i tried this trick but its not working for me iam not clearly getting were to put space in command prompt so kindly help.iam using windows xp service pack 2

thanks Regards
maddy

By: prabhakar

prabhakar — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 14:22:05 +0000

thanks so much nice to do thats all.

By: Ramesh

Ramesh — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 13:19:07 +0000

Hi, I tried this it works fine. Thanks for this post. If any way like this, to make the file be an undeletable?

By: leonides

leonides — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 11:46:42 +0000

it can be easily access when u r using windows 7, just go to security tab then advanced to edit the permission.

By: Ramesh

Ramesh — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 09:32:57 +0000

Hi, I tried this it works fine. Thanks for this post. If any way like this, to make the file be an undeletable?

By: Jan

Jan — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 08:06:30 +0000

A word to the wise: This method is NOT secure.

First, anybody knowing (or guessing) a file name can access it.
Second, anybody with any knowledge about NTFS security (like, goning to the root of C: and typing CACLS * /T /G BUILTINusers:RW) can break it.
Third, anybody booting your PC into a Linux CD/USB stick can access everything (as he will have full root/administrator access on the Linux OS, he can override your NTFS permissions).
In effect, your method just *may* be good enough to keep your mom out of your image collection, but even your little sister could get in.

If an attacker has physical access to your PC, only encryption can protect your data.
I would strongly recommend installing TrueCrypt – it’s free, it uses strong encryption that’s likely to withstand even determined attackers with both knowledge and resources, and it’s open source – important in security software because it can be and has been reviewed by independent researchers.
To be really safe against professional adversaries, you would need to encrypt the full hard disk so the encryption works before booting into Windows, but for 99% of the people out there an encrypted “virtual drive” is good enough. (Yes, an attacker may be able to stitch together some useful data from your page file, but this is way beyond most moms and little sisters).

By: Yahoo

Yahoo — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 20:15:06 +0000

This tip not used for FAT32….so made NTFS first….okay

By: jeff

jeff — Sat, 07 May 2011 21:26:30 +0000

i must say this is pretty stupid. Anyone with knowledge of security rights of ntfs will simply go to the security tab (in properties, it even tells you) and retake ownership/privieleges of the folder.

By: Benjamin

Benjamin — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 04:39:35 +0000

Can I protect harddrive in win7 x64 so other users can view/read ONLY and not write, delete, copy datas to that drive

By: Tanmay

Tanmay — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 05:02:18 +0000

@M Zia: I have already mentioned that it works only on NTFS file system. However, thanks for your comment.

By: M Zia

M Zia — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 12:49:45 +0000

sir is this option(to make folder inaccessible) only for NFTS or also for FAT32 thanks

By: buhari4u

buhari4u — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 20:10:22 +0000

i use cacls foldername /E /P everyone:n to lock a folder,to unlock that folder i try f instead of n but it shows “Access denied”,i also tried with y instead of n.bt it also not working.pls help me to unlock the folder

By: Tanmay

Tanmay — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 16:28:12 +0000

Run command prompt as administrator. You can do it by Start > All programs > Accessories > right-click on command prompt >Select Run as administrator. Then navigate to the folder location and type exactly the following command replacing with yours. cacls /e /c /g %username%:f

By: James

James — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 07:02:35 +0000

Hi I have locked the folder but how can I unlock it. I am using windows 7 and I have made the folder inaccessible to myself. How exactly do I use the administrator account?

By: chandu

chandu — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 05:18:26 +0000

Hi…when i’m trying to lock, it is showing error like this…

cacls is not an internal or external command…
wat can i do…?

By: Tanmay

Tanmay — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 06:08:52 +0000

cacls /e /c /g %username%:f The above command should unlock the folder. If not, then please make sure that you are the admin user of your computer. If you are using windows 7, run the command prompt as administrator (type cmd in the start menu search box > right-click on "Command prompt" > click on "Run as administrator"). Then run the above unlocking command. Let me know if this solved your problem.

By: Shlesh

Shlesh — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 05:13:56 +0000

it worked while locking but it didnt worked while unlocking. what do i do. it worked for an empty folder so i locked my important files. nad its displaying access_denined. what do i do. please help…

By: Tanmay

Tanmay — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 05:33:54 +0000

@Lenincha: You can apply the command on any location. Just navigate to the folder location in that different hard disk from the command prompt. You can use cd command.
This tutorial is based on Windows system and will not work for different OS.
Thanks for your comment. Keep your reading at TechTipsGeek

By: Lenincha

Lenincha — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 21:09:36 +0000

Hola Tanmay, me agrada el tema, pero mi consulta está en lo siguiente: para que me puedas sugerir, dime por favor como puedo hacer la operación en caso de que tengo en mi maquina instalado dos discos duros y un sistema operativo diferente en cada uno de ellos, ademas que para cada sistema existen de 4 a cinco usuarios incluido el administrador, por lo que es de suponerse que hay dos administradores como minimo en la PC, cual seria la sintaxis? para poder proteger correctamente una carpeta ubicada en el disco de otro sistema? .. Gracias de antemano …. Saludos

“Hi Tanmay, I like the subject, but my query is as follows: that I can suggest, please tell me how I can do the operation if installed in my machine I have two hard drives and a different operating system on each of them, besides that for every system there are 4 to five users including the administrator, so it is assumed that two administrators at least in the PC, what would the syntax? to properly protect a folder on the disk of another system? .. Thanks in advance …. Greetings”

By: Tanmay

Tanmay — Sat, 27 Nov 2010 04:19:53 +0000

Thanks Tom for the suggestion. I will definitely cover some article on password protecting USB drive. Keep reading.