How do i lock a USB so user cant delete or add files?

[Stefce]

Hello how can i lock a usb drive that the user it will be not able to remove the files that are in also to cant add new ones? I think its very cool for advertising own goals :)

• Thanks :)

[cereal]

IMHO it's best printing the name on the usb case and let the client reuse the drive. Otherwise you have to change the firmware of the usb to act like a CD, see if this helps: https://superuser.com/a/822578

[rubberman]

If the USB ports have not been disabled at the OS level, then it is difficult (impossible) to do what you want. The simple thing is to disable the USB driver. Unfortunately, a lot of stuff on current systems, such as WiFi and Bluetooth, run off of the USB hubs, as do most keyboards and mice.

[Christopher_23]

Most flash drives now come with an app to set up users with passwords to access the drive. You just set the privileges to read only. You can also download an app like usb secure from Cnet to the flash drive if it doesn't have preinstalled security app.

[rproffitt]

@Chris. 2 things bother me about your last post.

1. CNET doesn't have this app but download.com and they messed up a few too many PCs with their downloaders.
   Read https://www.howtogeek.com/198622/heres-what-happens-when-you-install-the-top-10-download.com-apps/

Download.com plays this down by writing that was years ago. So you first Mikey.

1. That app doesn't seem to work on Linux, iOS, Android or "OTW" (other than Windows."
   Do you have another solution?

[ByakkoChan]

You can buy USB drives with a built in write-protect switch.

https://www.amazon.ca/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=usb+write+protect

[Stefce]

@ByakkoChan theese are way too much expensive also i need arount 1000 - 1500 usb sticks about 200MB size.

[rproffitt]

@Stefan, at that quantity you can get them in the few dollar range. https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/mini-read-only-usb-flash-drive_1716327141.html for example. There are others. I hope you can research this from here on out.

[rubberman]

The best (cheapest) policy is to trust your users, making sure they all agree to terms of use for these devices. But you can verify what they do with them via software. There are a lot of software tools out there you can install on your systems that will monitor what is uploaded/downloaded to/from the system from external sources, including the internet.

[Stefce]

@rubberman yes that would be usefull but i do not want to spy on people.

[mikef76205]

A good start might be to write protect the drive by marking the folders and files read-only. I just use
Right-click - Properties. Many users can't disable this.

Files can be encrypted to stop them from being changed. Winzip can be used to compress and password protect the files.

Users can usually format the drive to get rid of read-only or encrypted files.

If the above aren't sufficient, password based menu software can be downloaded for most USB manufacturers. This has a CD File System partition that can't easily be erased. It password protects a writable partition that has programs and folders. Sandisk for example sells a range of USB flash drives with built in protection called SecureAccess or U3 Launchpad. About half of my USB sticks and SSDs are Sandisk.
https://kb.sandisk.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/2399/~/sandisk-secureaccess-3.0-support-information-and-download-page

[rubberman]

If your system supports access-control lists (ACLs - Linux does) then you can restrict what people can do with which files. I'm not sure if Windoze supports ACLs or not. Anyone here know?

[Jim_16]

A simple way to prevent the user of a USB flash drive from accessing private data is to put everything you don't want others to have access to into a folder in the flash drive, then encrypt the folder using a simple tool like kruptos (http://www.kruptos2.co.uk/download.html).

[cereal]

@Jim_16

Hi, please read again: the OP wants read-only access for everyone.