Can I mount a partition read only?

[psc]

Hi,

is it possible to (re-)mount a NTFS partition on a hard drive as read only
(in Windows XP)?

[Dilip Naik]

Yes according to Mark Russinovich and David Solomon in this MSDN article
http://crawlmsdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/cc302206.aspx

The relevant line says "NTFS can mount read-only media and has better
security defaults"

Dilip

PS Maybe you need to be more specific with your question

Post by psc
Hi,
is it possible to (re-)mount a NTFS partition on a hard drive as read only
(in Windows XP)?

[psc]

Post by Dilip Naik
Yes according to Mark Russinovich and David Solomon in this MSDN article
http://crawlmsdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/cc302206.aspx
The relevant line says "NTFS can mount read-only media and has better
security defaults"
Dilip
PS Maybe you need to be more specific with your question

No, that's not what I meant.

I have a defective hard drive. Most parts of the NTFS partition on it are
still readable, but I want to prohibit Windows from writing anything on it in
order to prevent that it gets even more corrupted.

Therefore I need a way to tell Windows that this partition is read only
(something like "mount -o ro" in Linux).

Greetings,
Peter

[Edwin vMierlo [MVP]]

Not sure if this works, but you can try the following (based on Windows 2003
SP2)

switch off "automount" using the mountvol.exe command

present disk to Windows 2003 SP2

do not mount the disk

launch diskpart

do a "list disk" and "list volume"

note down the correct volume number

in diskpart do a "select volume X" (where X is the correct volume number)

then in diskpart doa "att vol set readonly"

then in diskpart do a "detail vol" and ensure the readonly bit is set

then you can mount the volume, the volume will be readonly



HTH,
Edwin.

Post by psc

Post by Dilip Naik
Yes according to Mark Russinovich and David Solomon in this MSDN article
http://crawlmsdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/cc302206.aspx
The relevant line says "NTFS can mount read-only media and has better
security defaults"
Dilip
PS Maybe you need to be more specific with your question

No, that's not what I meant.
I have a defective hard drive. Most parts of the NTFS partition on it are
still readable, but I want to prohibit Windows from writing anything on it in
order to prevent that it gets even more corrupted.
Therefore I need a way to tell Windows that this partition is read only
(something like "mount -o ro" in Linux).
Greetings,
Peter

[psc]

Post by Edwin vMierlo [MVP]
Not sure if this works, but you can try the following (based on Windows 2003
SP2)
switch off "automount" using the mountvol.exe command
present disk to Windows 2003 SP2
do not mount the disk
launch diskpart
do a "list disk" and "list volume"
note down the correct volume number
in diskpart do a "select volume X" (where X is the correct volume number)
then in diskpart doa "att vol set readonly"
then in diskpart do a "detail vol" and ensure the readonly bit is set
then you can mount the volume, the volume will be readonly
HTH,
Edwin.

Yes, this worked (using the diskpart.exe from Windows Server 2008).

Thank you!

[bornlibra23]

There is no such option in mountvol in XP.

[bornlibra23]

Post by Edwin vMierlo [MVP]
Not sure if this works, but you can try the following (based on Windows 2003
SP2)
switch off "automount" using the mountvol.exe command
present disk to Windows 2003 SP2
do not mount the disk
launch diskpart
do a "list disk" and "list volume"
note down the correct volume number
in diskpart do a "select volume X" (where X is the correct volume number)
then in diskpart doa "att vol set readonly"
then in diskpart do a "detail vol" and ensure the readonly bit is set
then you can mount the volume, the volume will be readonly
HTH,
Edwin.

Post by psc

Post by Dilip Naik
Yes according to Mark Russinovich and David Solomon in this MSDN article
http://crawlmsdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/cc302206.aspx
The relevant line says "NTFS can mount read-only media and has better
security defaults"
Dilip
PS Maybe you need to be more specific with your question

No, that's not what I meant.
I have a defective hard drive. Most parts of the NTFS partition on it are
still readable, but I want to prohibit Windows from writing anything on it

in

Post by psc
order to prevent that it gets even more corrupted.
Therefore I need a way to tell Windows that this partition is read only
(something like "mount -o ro" in Linux).
Greetings,
Peter