How can I block specific program to access an external drive ?

[Bulda]

Hi,

I'm using Tixati / BitTorrent for torrents ( in reality: they are using my CPU to mine BitCoins ... ), Viber for communication ( actually: spying on me ), avast for "antivirus protection" ( actually: stealing my data ) etc.

I dont't want these programs to access my external / other drive(s). How can I block them ? Either in Win 7 or by some SW.

They are all installed in C: drive, and are allowed to access D: drive, where there is nothing so important. External drive(s) are other letters.

Don't recommend me to unplug external drive. The best solution would be to have two separate computers: one for internet access + crap, the other for serious work, without internet. Which is so far not possible.


Thanks for help,

B.

 

[Alejandro85]

Two possible options immediately comes to mind.

Use built-in Windows permissions to block them. Use a second, separated user account to run problematic programs, then set the permissions on the drives to deny access to that user. Your main one will still have full access, but anything you run under the "lower" one won't. This requires the external drives to be NTFS and won't work on new drives, as you need to deny permissions explicitly. Neither works against invasive programs like antiviruses, as they install kernel-mode drivers that bypass permissions.

Another option would be to use a virtual machine to run doubtful programs, without giving it acces to any external drive. That way, anything that happens there remains there with no chance of touching other data. This, however, requires managing a second OS.

 

[sluggerb]

Another option would be to use a virtual machine to run doubtful programs, without giving it acces to any external drive. That way, anything that happens there remains there with no chance of touching other data. This, however, requires managing a second OS.

I do this for anything I want to run "silo'ed" and second the suggestion. anything I am not sure about I run in a VM that has no network adapter installed and no access to the Host so it is completely isolated