SERIOUS HELP NEEDED: How To Store Files So They Can't Altered?

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  1. Posts : 7,128
    Windows 10 Pro Insider
       #11

    A word of caution if you decide to use DVD media. Most blank DVD media you find in stores today are junk. You may wind up with a lot of coasters. Even worse someday in the future you may not be able to access your data on the DVD. DVDs are slowing phasing out. HDDs and flash drives are getting so inexpensive today that they are your best bet. :)
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  2. Posts : 696
    Windows 10
    Thread Starter
       #12

    shimshom said:
    Do you want it protected from anyone seeing it or just editing it as you can protect your eBook files with Winrar or the free and excellent 7-Zip by archiving them with a password and saving on whatever media. Search Google on how to access the protection panel from the tools menu in Adobe and try to do the password from there
    I want to be able to store the files and know that they can't be altered in the future by anyone, including myself.
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  3. Posts : 260
    Win 10 Pro X64
       #13

    If you don't want to ever edit pdf files you can always convert them to picture files which can be done in Acrobat and others and reassemble them as pdf again then put a password on opening the files or use compression software as discussed before to archive them with a password then back it all up to an external hard drive which can be kept disconnected from the computer ones the backup is done. You don't have to archive one file at a time but can compress whole folders in one archive and use the built in password protection to keep it safe. When creating an archive and putting a password make sure you tick an option called "Encrypt File Names" which will, in either Winrar or 7-Zip, make it ask for a password to open the whole archive and not the individual files inside it which can become tedious to do as you would need to re-type the password for every file inside. You can do the same for your eBooks as far as also compressing them with a password and backing up to an external hard drive as well as DVDs
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  4. Posts : 696
    Windows 10
    Thread Starter
       #14

    shimshom said:
    If you don't want to ever edit pdf files you can always convert them to picture files which can be done in Acrobat and others.
    This sounds like a great idea, but couldn't the .JPEG/.PNG/.GIF files that are created by edited anyway?
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  5. Posts : 260
    Win 10 Pro X64
       #15

    Ultimately everything can be reversed engineered and pic files can be OCR'd or manipulated with Photoshop and similar but even the NSA and many others couldn't keep their docs safe so it's kind of depends how deep you wish to go and you can always use an encryption program which requires the same program to open the encrypted archives but since (And that's an assumption) you're a private person and you're not talking about state secrets it's probably best to protect the docs and eBooks as per the above posts and keep them on an external hard drive which can be locked away in a safe or hidden in some other ways
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  6. Posts : 696
    Windows 10
    Thread Starter
       #16

    Thanks so much for sharing your knowledge with me. I really appreciate it!

    I just want to store the .PDF files as if they were hardcover books in a library. Does this make sense? I'm thinking the earlier idea of using a DVD-R might be best for me... Is it possible for a DVD-R to be re-written to after the first time files are burned to the DVD-R disc?
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  7. Posts : 19,516
    W11+W11 Developer Insider + Linux
       #17

    NiceAndShy said:
    Thanks so much for sharing your knowledge with me. I really appreciate it!

    I just want to store the .PDF files as if they were hardcover books in a library. Does this make sense? I'm thinking the earlier idea of using a DVD-R might be best for me... Is it possible for a DVD-R to be re-written to after the first time files are burned to the DVD-R disc?
    No, but files could be added if session is not closed. There are Re-writable DVDs but their life is not as long as ordinary ones because of different substrate.
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  8. Posts : 4,201
    Windows 10 Pro x64 Latest RP
       #18

    As long as the DVD session is closed then they cannot be written to again, (this is the normal and even if they are not closed the originals will not be overwritten).

    There are still some issues however ...

    A file can be copied off the DVD and read only status removed, (DVD files have the Read Only Attribute set as part of writing), allowing the file to be edited, or you could print the file to a PDF creator and the new file could then be edited.

    What I would do is firstly create a full backup of the current state and archive that away ( in a password protected archive if you think it's needed).

    Then edit the files to change the internal flags to Do not Allow Editing (or Printing), and save them to a DVD (non re-writable ) - You then have a distributable archive that may only be readable from the disk.

    There is no way to prevent copying so if this data is extremely confidential I suggest an "open" password is also needed.

    These options will require more than a simple PDF reader which will usually involve paying for the software. ( some or all of this functionality is available with PDFCreator )
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  9. Posts : 696
    Windows 10
    Thread Starter
       #19

    CountMike said:
    No, but files could be added if session is not closed. There are Re-writable DVDs but their life is not as long as ordinary ones because of different substrate.
    Let's assume I use a DVD-R and I burn my ebooks to it, how can I make it so that it's not possible for any changes to be made to the ebooks on the DVD-R?
      My Computer


  10. Posts : 19,516
    W11+W11 Developer Insider + Linux
       #20

    NiceAndShy said:
    Let's assume I use a DVD-R and I burn my ebooks to it, how can I make it so that it's not possible for any changes to be made to the ebooks on the DVD-R?
    Close a session and no more can be written to it. Of what is written already, not one bit can be changed on that disk, nothing. As long as disk is not damaged, everything is safe.
      My Computers


 

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