How can I protect my backups?

Hi all

I recently bough a Seagate Freeagent Pro 500GB external hard disk for backups. After 6 years of having my own computer I've acquired alot of stuff I don't want to loose and recently having my desktop out of commission for a month and my laptop's hard disk fail made me determined to make backups.

So to the point, now I have my backups (created by a straight copy paste of the partition using Gnome Partition Editor). I like the ability to access the backups as an NTFS drive but I want to make it read only. Whats the best way (to protect my backup or make them if anyone has an alternative) and how do I do it?

Thanks

Grand Admiral

 

There's no global "make this hard drive read-only" thing. Your best option will be to individually mark the data so only one user (like Administrator) can write, and only turn the drive on when you need it.

 

Not in XP, I'm gonna check gnome in a minute. I really don't want to go into XP restrictions (had trouble when Windows installs have gone corrupt before) and I'd like to be able to use the rest of the drive if necessary (I only need 360GB to backup my computers) so I may want to leave it on in future. Thanks for the suggestions though.

Grand Admiral

 

Select All~~>Properties~~>Read Only

or maybe encryption http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307877 (i was never compelled to try this)

 

I never saw any options of encryption-decryption in Gnome....or u cud just use Norton Backup or make UIF iso images and password protect them....
even encryption through xp wud eat up ur extra space....

 

I can see why you never tried it, that goes into the whole restricted access thing I want to avoid! Its fine while XP is running smoothly but as soon as the user record goes bad you can't get into anything anymore!

Gnome gives the option to flag a partition as hidden, will that be enough to prevent access? I'm assuming when I do need to use the partition again I can just remove the flag and access it normally?

Grand Admiral

 

I don't really need to secure the backup, I just need to make it untouchable to bad things like viruses, Windows etc until I actually need it.

Grand Admiral

 

Burn a 2nd copy onto a set of DVD-Rs? Try a backup software to backup and compress your archives, put passwords on those backup files as well so that no other malicious programs can enter.

 

well making it hidden wont do u much gud....since viruses and spyware can find their way into windows system32 files....it wont be hard for them to get into ur flagged partition (i guess)
ya, i think the best would be to make DL DVDs and keep them well....or make image files on ur hardrive in form of UIFs 'cause they are secure and access them with an emulating software such as Daemon or Magicdisc....
if u ve got a good antivirus, then flagging it will be fine too....

 

This may sound like overkill, but please make a backup of a backup. That external can fail just like any other hard drive.

Example: I deleted 30 gigs worth of music because I didn't realize that I had selected all, I move fast.

Having another backup saved me.