[G4] Permissions on external HD

[Perry The Cynic]

--On Monday, June 28, 2004 4:37 PM +0200 Ole Visby <hamselv at olevisby.dk> 
wrote:

> Hi everyone!
>
> I recently aquired a new external HD (FireWire). Is it possible to create
> folders on it with permissions set for only a single user (me), so that
> the content is, for instance, read-only or not accessible, unless
> logged-in as me, like on my startup drive?

Yes. Select the disk icon in the Finder. Do a "Get Info". Open the 
"Ownership and Permissions" tab. Uncheck the "Ignore Ownership..." 
checkbox. Then use the popups in that section (open "Details") to set who 
can do what. You may have to click on the tiny padlock to the right to 
change ownership, which will require Administrator privileges.

> [...] Do the permissions still apply
> if the drive is connected to a different computer?

No. The "ignore ownership" setting is separate for each computer.

Please understand that file permissions are "discretionary" (as the 
security folk say): they only matter if all the systems involved agree on 
what they mean. They cannot protect your files against someone who has 
physical possession of the disk. If that's what you need, you must put an 
encrypted disk image on the disk, and put your files into that; then access 
is effectively controlled by who knows the password, on any computer.

Cheers
  -- perry
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Perry The Cynic                                             perry at cynic.org
To a blind optimist, an optimistic realist must seem like an Accursed Cynic.
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