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Security between drives

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by pramodpatil

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Need to setup a system with 2 win2k pro on the partitioned drive. Detail description of the configuration would want to achieve ?

20GB single Hard drive.
C drive - 7GB
D Drive - 8GB
E Drive - ~5GB

C and D drive will have win2kpro installed as 2 separate OS with NTFS .I can always switch between 2 installations by rebooting the system. I can setup the above system.

Few questions

1. If C drive get affected by virus or hack, will D drive (another win2kpro) will/can get affected?? (Though two different partitions and OS).

2. Is registry will be accessible from either installations. (As per my understanding , answer to this question will be NO but would like to get some expert opinion)

3. How do I restrict / make D drive invisible from C drive and vice versa??

I would still like to have E drive accessible from both installation as it will be used to store files

Thanks to you all Experts.

4 replies

by mithgarvis

Hi Pramod (?)

Let's answer these in order:

1. Virii can attack operating systems, files, or disks. If you get a virus that attacks the operating system, it will not spread to the second installation... but if it affects the operating system and THEN starts infecting individual files, it will probably eventually infect files on the second drive. My advice re virii is find them fast and eliminate them thoroughly before they do too much damage.

2. You were right. No, or at least not smartly or safely. You can in theory import the registry from the second install, alter it, and then export it to its original location. However this is SEVERELY not recommended because if you screw things up you may end up having to reinstall from scratch (if you screw up the one you are working on you can restore it on the first reboot).

3. You cannot make the drives invisible. You can restrict them by giving NT permissions to the individual users or groups on that install, and assigning a DENY permission to everyone else.

Let me know if this helps, and e-mail me your follow-up questions at mitch@e-mitch.com

by pramodpatil

Mitch,

Thanks for reply. I won't be changing registry of the second drive from first. Usually if you get attacked by virus or hacker they will destry the system on which you are logged in. So it won't be easy to get access to second drive though not impossible.

Regards,

Pramod

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