How To Lock A USB Drive

Unlike a memory card, the USB flash drive do not have a physical lock switch.
Without using a password to access a USB drive, how else can I lock a USB drive,
or just folder in the removable drive (for free)?

I have a folder with my applications as backup. Most times when I plug in this
USB drive to my main computer, Windows Defender and my AVG antivirus tend
to remove two "setup.exe" file in some of the folders. The app is 'clean' but
always been removed. Twice when I scanned this USB drive, all was fine, but along
the line, the Defender and AVG tells me the files have been removed. I just need
to lock the USB drive since I am tired of replacing the removed files.

Thanks.

How To: Make A USB Read Only | USB Powered Gadgets And More..

NavyLCDR said:

How To: Make A USB Read Only | USB Powered Gadgets And More..

Read in the article that using a FAT system USB, I can just "yank" out the drive without using the EJECT function.
Eeeeeeewgh! As much as I use flash drives, I always have to EJECT them before removing from the PC. So discouraging
and tiring for me, but do it anyway from past experiences with some flash drives. I have use both FAT and NTFS
types. Today, I plan on checking all the USB drives I have and make sure they are all FATs, if not, I will empty them
and format to FAT immediately.

Just to feel 'better' I will still be using the EJECT function on my backup large USB external drive.

Thanks for the great information also on 'locking' my USB drives to become Read Only.

If you have files over 2 GB that you want to save to the flash drive, then you need NTFS for it.

NavyLCDR said:

If you have files over 2 GB that you want to save to the flash drive, then you need NTFS for it.

My smallest flash drive is 8GB. With larger drives this days, I (we all) tend to be lazy and not manage our drives and leave files in the drives. So, I should be EJECTing my drives for safefy, which means I should make my flash drives NTFS then.

Thanks.

With FAT32 you can usually just remove the drive without using the eject feature. But usually is not always. It can get you into trouble.

With NTFS using the eject feature is much more important. NTFS was never designed for use with removable drives because there were few such when it was designed. You need to use the eject feature to ensure that any pending writes to the drive have been completed.

Edit: One issue with NTFS is that it is a proprietary file system that is not fully supported by non Windows systems. Linux and Apple Mac may not support writing to such a drive and most media devices don't support it at all. This may not be a big deal to you but it is to many people.

Hi,

Edit: One issue with NTFS is that it is a proprietary file system that is not fully supported by non Windows systems. Linux and Apple Mac may not support writing to such a drive and most media devices don't support it at all. This may not be a big deal to you but it is to many people.

That plus the fact that NTFS is a secure system which means that if you stick it in another machine that user won't be able to read anything on it.

As for removing external drives. I'd never do it regardless of what file system is on it because sooner or later you're bound to have troubles with that. Even with Quick Removal enabled.

Cheers,