How to block access to external hard drives and other stuff?

[Namcot]

I am the only user of my PC and it requires a password to log in as administrator.

I want to create a guest account so Dad and my nephews and nieces can use my computer to check email and surf the internet with parental block and download/save to hard drive/install new programs restrictions only on the guest account while they are here later this week for Christmas.

I have 12 external hard drives hooked up to it and 1 internal hard drive with nothing but Windows 7 and Google Chrome and Anti-Virus Anti-Spyware programs and one old Delta Force game from 2005.

I also want the guest account to only be able to see the internal hard drive when they open Computer and not see any external hard drives attached to the computer without me needing to unplug all the external hard drives and then having to remember which USB slots each one is plugged into.

Is it possible to set up the guest account these ways without installing any programs, etc?

[Intershar1]

It may be cumbersome, but you can hide a drive with Group Policy editor. Open the Policy editor by going to run then gpedit.msc Open the following path or group:

User Configuration/Administrative Templates/Windows Components/Windows Explorer

Double click (Hide these specified drives in My Computer). Enable it, then select the letters you want to hide.

The drives are only hidden, but they could be accessible by viruses or malware. If your members' aren't PC savvy, I'd disconnect the drives. It's possible for a virus to infect from a guest account via privilege escalation.

I hope this helps

[Namcot]

So you are saying to log into the guest account and hide them but once I leave the guest account and log back into as the administrator, they will still show without me needing to unhide them?

[alexora]

I usually simply disconnect the external drives when I let another person use my computer unsupervised: it just makes sense.

[Intershar1]

Originally Posted by Namcot

So you are saying to log into the guest account and hide them but once I leave the guest account and log back into as the administrator, they will still show without me needing to unhide them?

Yeah, you will have to run gpedit as administrator and enter in your credentials.

[Namcot]

Originally Posted by alexora

I usually simply disconnect the external drives when I let another person use my computer unsupervised: it just makes sense.

That won't work with my setup.

If I plug them into the wrong USB their drive assignment letter will change or a couple will not even show up even if I shut down the PC before plugging them all in.

[alexora]

Originally Posted by Namcot

That won't work with my setup.

If I plug them into the wrong USB their drive assignment letter will change or a couple will not even show up even if I shut down the PC before plugging them all in.

Right. I guess there are some big differences between Windows and OSX...

[Intershar1]

So, you want your guest account to only access C:\? Block the drive letters all the way down I guess. I'd give them access to D:\ (CD/DVD, etc), block from E:-Z:

lol

[fakotako]

lots of settings are cumbersome. BuduLock is free and get password protected access my advice.

[ZeeeK_o]

This might be oversimplified but how about you get a Power Extension Cord With On-off switch, plug your ext HDD into it and done. I knopw its a little late for this but might be very useful for the future