Solved How access external hdd in desktop n notebook without change ownership

[Borba]

Frequently I need to use an external hdd in my desktop pc but also in a laptop. And every time I waste time in all those process of change permissions. There is a way to use the hdd without change the ownership? Can I have an user recognizable in both systems?

 

[Barman58]

Why not just set the access to the whole portable drive to "Everyone"

 

[RolandJS]

Barman, am I missing something? On both computers, one at a time, could the end-user assign a drive letter and then Share this device?

 

[Barman58]

Sharing would imply a networked drive rather that a drive in a USB enclosure and used on one or other of the two devices at any one time. Which i have assumed this is rather than a NAS

The main accounts on each system should have the same main UserName, probably a tokenized Admin (and passwords should match), which would also give some access but could need confirmation at various points down the tree.

Setting the NTFS permissions open, (assigning Full access rights to Everyone), will give total access to any user accessing the drive from any system, this is basically creating a public drive in the same way as Public Documents, Etc on a regular windows build

Ownership should be left alone as in this situation it's not really an issue

 

[Borba]

Thank you Barman, could you explain how to change permission to everyone?

 

[Barman58]

As file permissions are inherited from those allocated to folders, you need to assign your required permissions to the root folder of the drive.

As an admin user, Right click on the root of the drive in This PC, select the security tab, if everyone user is listed change the permissions to full control, if not then add a user Everyone and allocate them full control. These permissions should automatically cascade down the file tree. Sometimes this will throw an error at points on the tree where previous permission changes were made, if this happens you need to repeat the above proceedure, at these points and allow them to allocate permissions until the whole drive has the correct ones

 

[Borba]

Thanks a lot, Barman. "Everyone" was the keyword.

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
Not sure why this makes it extremely easy to take ownership
Take Ownership Shortcut - Windows 7 Help Forums

 

[Barman58]

The problem with using take ownership rather than allocating permissions correctly as they were designed to be used is that take ownership is a scattergun approach, if it is used indiscriminately it can leave a system in a state that removes all the protections designed into it. In my experience ownership should only be given to or taken by a system or admin level user as it gives additional functionality over and above just the access rights. In any form of multi level, multi user system ownership of system and data drives is best left with the users assigned by the OS developer.

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
Be that as it may you have to have permissions to give permissions or change permissions