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2 parts,each with xp on it


ripken204

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i just parted one of my comps's hhds into 2. with xp installed on both, 1 is for my sister who will get lotsa viruses/spware/adaware and the other is for my dad whos not an id***. now will it be possible for all of the crap that my sister gets to be transfered to my dads part? and if so is there a way to prevent it?

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You could also look into a boot loader, one which would hide the partitions from each other depending on what is booted. I know there are commercial applications that accomplish this, but I bet there are some freeware ones too. I keep hearing about this XOSL, but never had a chance to try it out.

If you don't prevent access, then viruses and other nasties can and will propigate to the other. I would suggest trying to remove access even before the OS loads.

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Or the simple solution... remove the partition letter for the other partition in your sister's installation. That way there's no easy way for anything to be put on/accessed from your dad's side. If you want, you can reverse the process so that it goes both ways.

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Well, this topic puzzles me, guys ...

How can these steps prevent viruses and malware spreading from one partition to an other ... ? Since the system "knows" there's the other partition regardless of what is shown in disk management and elsewhere ... the partitions must be recognized on boot - no? (unless you make it a Linux kind of partition)

regds.

Jacob

Edited by techniquefreak
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Well, this topic puzzles me, guys ...

How can these steps prevent viruses and malware spreading from one partition to an other ... ? Since the system "knows" there's the other partition regardless of what is shown in disk management and elsewhere ... the partitions must be recognized on boot - no? (unless you make it a Linux kind of partition)

regds.

Jacob

Thats why I suggest removing access to the drives before the OS loads. Now, if you were to remove the drive letter like people are suggesting, that would probably work too, but I just don't trust that in the end...if Windows can access it, then in theory so could a virus or spyware.

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Thats why I suggest removing access to the drives before the OS loads. Now, if you were to remove the drive letter like people are suggesting, that would probably work too, but I just don't trust that in the end...if Windows can access it, then in theory so could a virus or spyware.

AFAIK, no common software (I know there are probably specialty tools) has direct access to the data within partitions on a drive. If a partition does not have a mount point (i.e. drive letter or empty NTFS folder) then there is no means of accessing the data inside (or writing data for that matter).

Windows knows that the partition is there. Software doesn't. It would have to be very specific and sofisticated malware to infect non-running OS on another partition without a mount point...

If you want to mess around with a third-party boot loader that will hide/unhide partitions on startup, go for it. If you're just concerned with preventing malware from spreading from one side to the other, then removing the mount point should be enough.

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Another good thing to do... (takes a little bit more work though)

-Set up 6 partitions and label them something like the following.

  • DadXP
  • DadDoc
  • DadBackup
  • SisXP
  • SisDoc
  • SisBackup

-Install XP on each of the ***XP partitions. Install all the programs that you'd normally install on a base installation.

-Change the drive letters in each so that the one side can't "see" the other.

-Set up the ***Doc partitions to be mounted in the "My Documents" folder for the user in each installation. You'll need to delete everything there, since there's a hidden system "desktop.ini" file in the My Documents folder by default.

-Use a backup program to create backup images of each XP installation into their respective ***Backup partition.

-Make the backup program's bootable ISO and give it to them.

-Give computer to them.

Once that's all done, they'll each have their own installation, completely isolated from the other (well almost). If ever the need arises, you can just restore the backup image, and their documents will still be in the "My Documents" folder.

I did something similar with my parent's computer. Nothing bad has happened thus far (touch wood).

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