How to protect an external hard disk files from accidental deletion?

Question

I had a bit of problems in the recent months with the data I have on my External hard disk. I have large content in each folder.

If you think about it, it takes only two keys to delete a folder - del and enter. Is there anyway to protect files from accidental deletion?

Solution

Perhaps the simplest way is to deny yourself delete permissions to the folders on the drive, and instead force yourself to elevate the credentials to delete the files. In windows, just remove the modify permission from the security property of the folder.

Make sure that the property is inherited by all subfolders as well.

To 'protect' the drive

1. Right click the drive in Windows Explorer, and select Properties
2. Go to the 'Security' tab and click 'Advanced' at the bottom
3. Click 'Changed Permissions'
4. Find the user you would like to change in the list of users and click edit
5. Uncheck 'Delete' and 'Delete Subfolders and Files' and click OK
   • Repeat on any other users as necessary. (Hint: Selecting Users should apply it to all non-administrative accounts, and selecting Administrators should apply that to all administrator accounts)
6. Select 'replace all child object permissions with inheritable permissions from this object' and click OK again and on any remaining Windows.

Comments

[Daniel Andersson]

Backup is the way to protect files from accidental deletion.