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How do I make a flash drive read-only?

K

Ken90630

Golden Member
I've Googled this, to no practical avail. And I'm sure it's probably been asked before, but since I don't know the answer, here goes:

I have a small group of friends & acquaintances that turn to me for computer support on a regular (and increasing) basis. I'd like to load some security apps onto a flash drive so I can plug it into infected PCs and clean them up.

Of course, there are many pieces of auto-run malware out there that will try to 'jump' over to my flash drive when I plug it in. Is there a way to make my flash drive read-only so that nothing can write to it?

I mainly use Corsair Flash Voyagers and Kingston Data Travelers, neither of which have a physical switch on them to enable read-only. I read somewhere that there are such drives, so if anyone knows of them, feel free to clue me in.

Thanks in advance.
 
Those drives with physical write-protect switches seem to be few and far between.

Strange, too, since removable storage should ALWAYS have a "write-protect" option, it's basic computer science. Floppies have always had them, and so do SD cards.
 
What we do at the pc repair shop i work at is we just stick it into the linux box, format and reload the backup onto it after each infected PC it enters.

A hardware write protection would be a more practical solution though. Don't think you can do it properly with software.
 
corkyg said:
You can also download and install software that will lock a flash memory drive. There are several - this is but one:

http://www.sharewareconnection.com/software.php?list=Lock+Usb+Flash+Memory
Click to expand...
Seems more like they just encrypt the data, after all how should the flash drive itself (without special HW support) support ACLs? Easy to lie to it and circumvent. And while encryption protects the data, you can still easily delete it.. you just don't find out what's on it.
 
After further research, the software-based solutions seemed like too much hassle. So I ordered one of those Kanguru flash drives listed on the page Zap linked to (thanks a lot). It has one of those little switches on the side that you just flip to make it read-only. At $22 for a 4 GB drive it's a little pricey compared to other flash drives, but what the hey -- another $10 or so to have that incredibly valuable switch is a no-brainer IMHO. I can put LOTS of installer packages & security utilities on a 4 GB drive. It'll pay for itself (and then some) in one service call. Prob solved, I think. Thanks, guys.
 
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