symlinks

[evlo]

Hello,

i have some hardware gadget that i really like and because it is tight integrated with wmp12 and its services and who-know-what-that-windows-media-stuff is.

So because i like to use it i need to use wmp and to be true, it is really good player for me, when it comes to it's library etc. But it is still bitchy(sorry) old Microsoft thing that acts like mallware(again - sorry) and i hate when i touches my music files and mostly folder.jpg. So in vista i simply crated readonly share \\pc\music from my c:\music added it to library and i was happy, no bad stuff happened, everything worked, wow!

Now in it's latest version (12) Microsoft seriously looked at my case, saw that i seriously f*cked(i'm not good at english and i don't know how to write it better) up with them and they did not destroyed my folder.jpg files and other. So when i happily added \\pc\music in windows7, wmp12 SECRETLY changed it to c:\music by itself and destroyed my folder.jpg files. I don't need to tell you how that p***ed me off, because i only use raid1 as backup solution so i have no second copy of my music library folder. After this i tried other OSs and found out, that SRM7500 (that gadget) don't work in them and since i like it i get back to win7. Since i already lost my high-res covers i experimented with wmp12 some more and i found out that it do not change smb share to folder if i mount it as mapped network drive or if i add $ to it, well i tough so, so to be sure i did both - i created share \\pc\music and added it as mapped network drive

net use S: "\\%pcname%\music$" /persistent:yes

, then i add S: to library and wmp did not change it to c:\music ... until i rebooted computer, then i found out that i have all files in library twice so i looked into library folders and c:\music was added jet again by itself - well there i must give MS credit for being really, really good at kidding people.

Now i basically have options:

1. buy NAS - it would be good for backup too

2. made linux server - building it on windows is quite risky because WMP would probably gain access trough C$ share

3. set security for library folder that everyone including administrators will have only read access and make special account for library management software - it seams to me VERY unconfortable

4. use symlink - that i would like, but i don't know if it is possible

I tried to create

mklink /D "C:\music_sym_readonly" "C:\music"

icacls "f:\music_sym_readonly" setowner administrators /L /T

icacls "f:\music_sym_readonly" /inheritance:e /L /T

icacls "f:\music_sym_readonly" /grant everyone:® /L /T

But this does not set access rights ON and IN subdirectories of symlink. It still have permissions from "C:\music" (real parrent).

I think that there is no way to set permission on files and folders "in symlinks". Am i right?

[MrJinje]

There are other solutions. Always could lock your MP3's read-only inside an ISO (I would use multiple 4.7GB ISO's for ease of backup), and use Pismo File Mount Audit Package to mount each iso as a read only directory. You can mount unlimited number of ISO's as directorys and the ISO name becomes the sub-folder name. The mounted directories are also persistent and available via network shares, it is an amazing little bit of freeware. I guess you could instead make an ISO for each band, so that each folder is organized somewhat. Just an idea.

Of course this will only last until Microsoft starts editing your ISO files without our permission. Remember 10 years ago when .ZIP files were safe from prying indexing services.

Edited December 26, 2009 by MrJinje

[evlo]

Well i'm still interested in symlinks ... generally, i know that even if i share readonly symlink as hidden share with $ at the end, mount it as mapped network drive, ms can still found out that it is shared symlink and get location from where it is linked and destroy files in it again .

ISO method is not very nice for updating, but some third party utility that would made fake readonly drive from directory would be usable.

EDIT: i found software called winmount, it cost 50USD, i'm trying it now and it seams that it is supposed to do what i want in commandline mode with -NoWriteback switch, is there any free alternative?

EDIT2: i got it to work, their help is crap but after some googling i found out that correct syntax is -NoWriteback:TRUE, now: is there some free alternative?

EDIT3: i managed to get results i wanted with winmount (mounting network shares from local computer ...), but then i noticed it don't update virtual drive when i add/delete files "master" drive from what the virtual one is created. BTW except for updates you can make unionFS like thing with it!!!

Edited December 27, 2009 by evlo

[evlo]

UPDATE: so now i found it still add file location on hardrive on its own, even if you set up hidden share with $ at the end and mout it as mapped network drive. Also it don't read library from winmount drive, so i gave up.

[evlo]

Now i think windows 7 libraries itself cousing it, not WMP ...