Solved Restricting a user to particular drives

[SheikhAman]

Hi,

I have been using Ubuntu Linux since quite some time, and have found it quite good on permissions fronts.
I can create a folder and set group permissions very well.

I have a Windows 7 Ultimate x32 at my home, and that PC is used by 2 people.
It has some crucial and private data.
I would want to know a way I can restrict a user from accessing predefined drives only.

for example, I create another user for my room-mate and restrict him from accessing my E and F drive somehow, giving him restricted rights too.

Is it possible!?

I found a nice tutorial here , but that's to lock a folder, and haven't been tested by me.

Please let me know as soon as possible.

 

[Maguscreed]

Drive Access - Restrict or Unrestrict - Vista Forums

and

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/122666-permissions-allow-deny-users-groups.html

You're going to have to play with user policies and it could get a bit complicated.
Be very careful doing this or you could lock yourself out.

 

[SheikhAman]

Thanks for the links!
Im looking into them
I kinda had a feeling that I have to play with GPEdit.
thanks for notifying me about the complexity, I'll take care of that.
I just revert if things work the way I want them to.

Thanks a lot!

 

[Maguscreed]

yes it wouldn't hurt to create a restore point before you start.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/697-system-restore-point-create.html

 

[SheikhAman]

Yes, that's an obvious thing I was going to do before I play with it.
I'll revert by tonight (By Indian time)
Thanks once again!

P.S. I like your avatar!

 

[SheikhAman]

Hi Maguscreed,

Exactly what you had warned me about, just happened.
Sadly, I lost access to my F drive.
I followed the link titled: Permissions - Allow or Deny Users and Groups

I did create a restore point before doing so, but it doesn't work.
Although F didn't have any crucial data, but still it was important.
I hope i can gain access to it soon.

To reiterate my problem, I have created another standard user for my dorm mate and would want to restrict his access to my E and F drives only.
Whenever I tried setting policies for him, all the options seemed to have been setting permission for ALL the users, including me too, although I don't want to restrict myself.

While trying the above link, I didn't see his user name in the list of users, so I restricted access to all the "Users" but did let "Administrators" have full access, since I am an administrator, I should have been getting access, but it didn't happen.
I am sure I mistook somewhere, but just don't know where.
Can you help restoring what it was like before all the mess happened!?
Please!

 

[Maguscreed]

You can't reverse your steps with the admin account and undo the permission?

 

[logicearth]

While trying the above link, I didn't see his user name in the list of users, so I restricted access to all the "Users" but did let "Administrators" have full access, since I am an administrator, I should have been getting access, but it didn't happen.
I am sure I mistook somewhere, but just don't know where.
Can you help restoring what it was like before all the mess happened!?
Please!

"Users" group is pretty much every user including those that are part of the "Administrators" group. DENY permissions take precedence over ALLOW permissions. Be restricting "Users" you restricted yourself.

 

[SheikhAman]

@logicearth thanks for telling. I would love if you could tell me the procedure to regain acess to my drive and do exactly what I want.

@maguscreed im currently trying to login with super admin, its weird, unlike xp, a login prompt doesn't appear when I ctrl+alt+del twice on lock/login screen.
I am going to try with safe mode.

 

[SheikhAman]

Hellow!!?
Please help me!
I tried many ways but neither I could log in as super admin, nor I could gain access to F drive.
and my motive of restricting it for a limited user still remains the same.

 

[Maguscreed]

I'm not certain of this, but I believe a repair install will reset the policies.

 

[SheikhAman]

I understand.
But that would be the poor man's solution to this.
I'll keep finding other ways to do it, and will keep this as the ultimate solution.
Although my system is saying that I need at least 8 Gigs of free space on C to upgrade Windows7, and I have 3.
When I freed up 8 Gigs, it says it needs 14 Gigs now. so it was quite a pain.

 

[SheikhAman]

I got it working.
I had to get the ownership of the drive and "all the subfolders" of it.
I forgot to tick the checkbox for this.
As soon as I did it, I regained access on the F drive, and later I used the "Share With">None option in Windows7 to get what I was wanting to do.
Now I have successfully restricted (and can restrict in future too) whatever file/folder I want to be restricted from all the other users.
This is seriously awesome, and was relatively very very simple.

Happy now.

 

[Maguscreed]

huh that method is actually blocking the other users on the same local machine?

good to know.

 

[SheikhAman]

Well that's what I wanted since the beginning !
Thanks for all your help Maguscreed!

Okay, so how do I mark this thread as solved!?

 

[WindowsStar]

Well that's what I wanted since the beginning !
Thanks for all your help Maguscreed!

Okay, so how do I mark this thread as solved!?

You don't the Admins have to. I will ask them too. Glad you have it worked out.

 

[Golden]

Okay, so how do I mark this thread as solved!?

For future reference, go to your first post and click the icon shown as a red triangle with an exclamation mark in it. Click on it, and in the box type SOLVED, and then click submit. This will notify the forum moderators and they will mark the thread as solved.

 

[SheikhAman]

Thanks.. both of you!