Anyone here know of a free program that can change the properties of files on Windows systems without administrative rights? I finally found out why I couldn't delete any files off my external drive (the person I gave it to didn't want it anymore). The reason is that, while each computer in the library can read from and write to any USB drive, each computer can only modify or delete files that they have created (hence permissions). This means that if I put Firefox on the USB drive at computer 3, I can only get rid of it at computer 3. Further more, if you put stuff on the drive from more then two or three different computer, the data in the invisible System_Volume folder (an annoying thing that only Windows uses) gets corrupted and the computer won't allow you to delete anything, because it doesn't know who it belongs to. It's set up that way due the stupid SAM Network Management thing on all the computers, which the library is using for all the wrong purposes. The only way I can fix my drive once and for all is to either change the properties of the files so that they belong to whatever computer I plug into (requires administrative rights), or format it with FAT32 (something these machines can not do), which would kill the permisions structure and give me complete access to the contents of the drive. I have found several free programs for partitioning, but none that were trully portable. They either try to write to the registry, which makes the computer terminate the app, or they require you to burn it to a CD or floppy and boot the computer from it. I need something that is relatively small and will allow me to do whatever I want to my external drive. Anyone got any ideas? Also, if anyone is currently working on a program that does this, I might be able to help. I'm currently studying C++.
New: Kanri (Oct 9, '24), Platform 29.5.3 (Jun 27, '24)
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Get yerself a Linux Live CD - aka, a live Linux "distro" (a good starting place is distrowatch.com, whence you can look up whichever distro yer interested in, and then download same), and boot up your own PC to said distro - whether burned onto CD or onto your key drive.
Plugin yer key drive to system (if not already plugged in).
Call up your USB key drive under said Linux, and then you can change the properties of the drive from read-only to read/write.
Then, delete stuff to your heart's content from your key drive.
When finished, you may reboot to the regular Win OS on the PC, and your key drive is minus the things you wanted to get rid of.
Here are listed just a few of some handy distro's to use:
Knoppix
Kanotix
Freespire
PCLinuxOS
Also there are DSL (Damn Small Linux), Puppy Linux, and MCNLive (to name a few I know of), which are able to be "burnt" to your keydrive so you can bootup Linux directly FROM your keydrive. The first 2 are very small Linuxes (
"I don't hate cats...as long as they stay on the freeway, where they belong."
- Brad Stine
You might try this one in particular.
http://lifehacker.com/software/partition/how-to-modify-your-partitions-f...
That's a really good one. Never let me down for about a year.
"What about Love?" - "Overrated. Biochemically no different than eating large quantities of chocolate." - Al Pacino in The Devils Advocate
Excuse me, but I need something that can be run under Windows. You see, I don't have a computer of my own, and the library won't let me use an external boot-able device. I need something that doesn't have to be installed, that comes packaged in some kind of folder, like a zip archive, and doesn't write to the stupid registry! Also, as I said before, a program capable of manipulating file properties without those stupid administrative rights is the preferred route. I will try to find something on my own and keep checking back regulary. It's MY drive after all. I don't care about the host system, just MY DRIVE.
comparison of features
Windows: empty pockets, slow computer, crippling malware, user level frustration, inability to meet deadlines, security holes
Linux: full pockets, super fast computer, endless software, endless customization, endless potential
were introduced to keep "normal users" from doing certain things. So I doubt there is a program to circumvent that policy and letting you (with your
"What about Love?" - "Overrated. Biochemically no different than eating large quantities of chocolate." - Al Pacino in The Devils Advocate
You should try using a friend's computer or something for this. I don't think there's any way you can run partition editor without admin rights. As for a file manager, there's more than one thread with links to many different programs.
Vintage!
The GParted CD, like the other mentioned, is are called a LiveCD. It runs the entire OS from the CD itself-no install required. Just pop it into the drive, restart the computer and boot from the CD. The OS will boot into memory and GParted will start automatically.
As long as you have the ability to boot directly from the CD, you can use these CDs without any need to install. And, what's better, you don't need any admin rights to do it.
All of the programs that I know of that run from Windows itself are not free. There may be some that I've missed, but when I needed to repartition my drive last year, I couldn't find anything. Partition Magic, though a pretty penny, works very well if you want to purchase a program to do the job, but again would probably require that you have admin rights to install it. Better to use the Linux LiveCDs.
EDIT: Ah re-read your post. No external boot-able device. Hmm... That's a bit more of a problem. I probably would go with the other suggestion about using another persons computer. Unless.... Just had a thought. Need to do a bit of research.
I'm sittin' here scratchin' my head as to why he'd even want a partitioning app, when he would need permissions to partition someone else's disk in the first place...
As to Partition Magic, there IS a portable version of it available, but I'd only recommend that if he owned a *legal* copy of the latest regular version of it (v. 8 ), as I do...
"I don't hate cats...as long as they stay on the freeway, where they belong."
- Brad Stine
As I said before, I want to edit the contents of MY USB drive. The library can keep their malfunctioning peices of Microsoft garbage. I think there is a way I could sneak the GPartED Live CD into one of the computers in the back of the room. A lot of people that go the library are computer illiterate any way, so I can just say it's a really cool web site at www (insert fake site here) .com lol Yeah, that's what I'll do. But for that, I would need a protable CD creation program (the MS default that ships with XP can't burn ISO's) I was hoping hat someone could create a portable version of GPartED that runs from within Windows and doesn't have to be installed. That would be a great portable app for the utilities section. If anyone knows of a site that already has something lik this available for download (NOHING ILLEGAL OR PROPRIETARY!), please post something in this thread.
comparison of features
Windows: empty pockets, slow computer, crippling malware, user level frustration, inability to meet deadlines, security holes
Linux: full pockets, super fast computer, endless software, endless customization, endless potential
Image Burn 2.2.
Runs portably (or at least 'mobile-ly'), and will burn ISO images onto CD's, thus giving you your GpartED CD that you need (once you've DL'd the ISO file).
'Course, you'll need to have a 'brary PC that has a CD/DVD burner installed, 'natch.
Get it here:
http://www.imgburn.com/
Bon appetit.
"I don't hate cats...as long as they stay on the freeway, where they belong."
- Brad Stine
My application of choice to burn an ISO to disk is one called BURNCDCC from Terrabyte. It is a small program that works with the CD burning capability that Windows comes with to burn an ISO image to either a CD or a DVD. It comes as a zipped file and when unpacked is way less than 1MB in size. It is a free download - Google the program name to find the download site. Since it isn't "installed" as an application as such you shouldn't run into problems with needing administrative rights on the computer to use it. Hope this helps.
Image Burn doesn't require install either.
AND it's usable on Win 98, if you ever work on that OS.
More flexibility? Me like.
"I don't hate cats...as long as they stay on the freeway, where they belong."
- Brad Stine
I hate Windows 98. But then again, I hate everything associated with Microsoft, with the exception of a few really good games, like Unreal Tournament or Quake. But wait, those both have Linux ports, don't they? I am now concidering a very sneaky approach: the bootable floppy. I haven't found anything that's capable of reformatting a USB device yet, but I'm still looking. If you guys find anything, post here will ya? About the friend's computer, no go. None of my friends trust me enough to put "foriegn software" in their systems.
comparison of features
Windows: empty pockets, slow computer, crippling malware, user level frustration, inability to meet deadlines, security holes
Linux: full pockets, super fast computer, endless software, endless customization, endless potential
No need for foreign software; it ain't even an issue:
If you burn yerself a Live Linux CD distro, you can bootup your friend's PCs from THAT, and it installs NOTHING onto their system. It runs off the CD and/or in RAM (depending on the distro), and unless you choose to save, say, a text file you create to their drive, NOTHING whatsoever will be written to their system (and even *then* you'd hafta go in and change permissions to save said text file - more on that below).
Since your only purpose is to format your USB stick, you won't be 'creating' any files in the first place, let alone saving any. In fact, your purpose in using their PC is to
1) ELIMINATE data, not create it,
and
2) To eliminate YOUR data (on the USB stick) not THEIRS....
In fact, you CAN'T eliminate their data - even if you wanted to - without deliberately going in under the Live CD and changing the permissions to be able to write onto the host PC's hard drive...And even THEN, some live distros I've tried are kinda balky and won't even let me change write permissions on my OWN damn PC when I want to (very frustrating)!...
Long story short:
Talk to these friends about using a Live CD to do your work on their PC, explain how hard/impossible it would be to screw up their system by so doing, and unless they're really anal about it, you should be able to convince at least one of 'em to let you borrow theirs.
Let us know how it turns out.
Solamente por la gracia de Dios,
- Preacher
"I don't hate cats...as long as they stay on the freeway, where they belong."
- Brad Stine
Ok, I've been doing my research. There's a way to run a Gparted LiveCD iso emulated via Qemu inside the windows environment. Basically, all that means is that you can download the ISO image to a flash drive (so long as it's big enough) and an emulated called Qemu and run both from the flash drive while IN windows.
Procedure:
1)Download the GParted LiveCD ISO from: http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=115843&package_id=...
2)Download Qemu (easiest from): http://www.arte.unipi.it/Public/Win32/ (Scroll down)
3)Then follow the steps listed here:
http://www.pendrivelinux.com/2007/03/09/use-qemu-to-boot-linux-from-wind...
I don't know if this will let you have control of the drive, but it is definitely portable and I got it running on my work computer without needing admin access.
NOTE: I have had no time to test or check this approach. All I know is that the Gparted ISO runs through Qemu. And that it is a little slow because of the emulation.
It was a great idea, but for some reason, GPartED only recognized the blank image file that Qemu uses for it's virtual hard drive. As for getting a friend to let me use their computer, that a no go. I tried talking to them, but the only thing I got was an offer to buy one of my friend's old computers for $250. What a load of (insert very long string of foul langauge here) !!!! I will continue my search for a floppy based distro that will kill the NTFS volume on my external drive and put a couple of FAT32 partitions in it's place.
If I can't find anything, then I will just have to go out and buy a 5 pack of CD's. Thanks for all your helpful information.
comparison of features
Windows: empty pockets, slow computer, crippling malware, user level frustration, inability to meet deadlines, security holes
Linux: full pockets, super fast computer, endless software, endless customization, endless potential
I went to GpartED's site and clicked on the features link and got some bad news. It seems that in order for GpartED to do anything, it needs one or more "Required Software" to do it. Are all of those packages on the Live CD? If not, please tell me how to get the packages, unpack them to my USB hard drive, and use the "cookie-cutter" approach to "install" the packages in the ISO (that is, bust open the ISO with 7-Zip and cut and paste the required package files into their proper directories). Some help on this would be much appreciated!
comparison of features
Windows: empty pockets, slow computer, crippling malware, user level frustration, inability to meet deadlines, security holes
Linux: full pockets, super fast computer, endless software, endless customization, endless potential
the live cd has all apps u need.
Try it and you'll know.
"Physics is like sex. Sure, it may give some practical results, but that's not why we do it." - Richard P. Feynman
"What about Love?" - "Overrated. Biochemically no different than eating large quantities of chocolate." - Al Pacino in The Devils Advocate
I brought a boot floppy and a GPartED live CD off the Internet, all for under $10! (including shipping!) For something that cheap, I was expecting to get errors galore when booting, but it worked! The GPartED live CD includes all the utilities I want, but it has a great graphical interface to manage them all! I played around with it and decided to put 12 different partitions on my drive, all Windows compatible. While GPartED saw all of the partitions in seconds, it took 15 minutes for Windows to recognize just 3 of them! Then I had a minor "write head crash" that kicked 3GB of space off the drive. Took a while to figure out what was wrong. Now I know that GParted is NOT a toy
And that Windows (insert foul language here) Now I access my files on any computer except "security enhances" ones that have started appearing in other libraries nearby. Thanks for all your help. I am also announcing my return to the Internet after the server room in the Central Branch Library caught fire.
comparison of features
Windows: empty pockets, slow computer, crippling malware, user level frustration, inability to meet deadlines, security holes
Linux: full pockets, super fast computer, endless software, endless customization, endless potential
lol why did u pay money? the money probobly isnt even going to devolpers
http://gparted.sourceforge.net/ its a free download
""write head crash" that kicked 3GB of space off the drive." lol when did this happen sounds like something bad
check disk lol
Slackware 12 for system
MCP (For XP and Server 2003)
Network + Certified
aim is "nycjv321" (minus quotes)