Re: How do I lock a CD ROM drive.

Tech-Archive recommends: Repair Windows Errors & Optimize Windows Performance

From: D.Currie (dmbcurrie.nospam_at_hotmail.com)
Date: 12/14/04 

Date: Tue, 14 Dec 2004 09:58:59 -0700

"Jake" <Jake@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:4AFCB38E-B3BC-4943-8378-EA573141FB85@microsoft.com...
> Is there a way to Lock a CD ROM drive using XP so that it can't be opened?
> I
> would rather not open up the box and pull the power cord to the drive.

Even if you could lock the drive from opening while Windows is running, it
can still be opened during the boot-up sequence, before any OS is loaded, so
if you're trying to keep someone from using the drive, stopping it from
opening while the OS is active isn't going to be enough to keep them from
using it. They could insert the disk during boot-up, then run it while the
OS is active.

And, if your drive has the eject pinhole, someone could manually open it and
insert a CD. I've heard that you're not supposed to do that unless the drive
is powered off, but if someone wants it to open, they might not worry about
the life of the drive.

I've never done it, but you can change the permissions on removable storage.
I don't know if the drive would still open or not, but the users shouldn't
be able to run things from the drive. I found the instructions for that by
typing "permissions" in help & support. Maybe that's what you're looking
for.

Depends on what you're trying to gain by not having the CD open, of course.
Maybe you're not trying to stop software from being run and you just don't
want it to open during normal use, in which case pulling the plug may be the
best option. Depends on how often you'd want to turn it on an off, whether
that's worth doing or not. You might be able to rig some sort of switch to
power it off from outside the case.

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