Dual boot XP/Vista: How to block access to files from other OS?

[vnf4ultra]

My computer is setup as xp and vista dual boot(each on own drive). I'm loaning my main computer to a guy I don't know really well, since his computer crapped out on him (for a lan party), and he will be using the xp OS. My question is how can I keep him from accessing files in my vista hard drive? I have a password for my vista account, and thought if it was password protected, then xp wouldn't be able to open any files on the vista hard drive(i.e. access denied). However, that's apparantly not the case, since I have full access to all vista files from within xp. If it comes down to it, I could probably pull the vista hd out, but I really don't want to go to the bother. I don't think the guy will even try to mess with my stuff, but I'd rather be on the safe side, since he's a "friend of a friend" so to speak. My vista hard drive is not "shared." I need to know soon, any help is appreciated, thanks all!

 

[vnf4ultra]

Oh well, no response. Pulled the drive. I can't believe that no one knows though.

 

[gbhall]

Sorry you did not get a timely response. The only way I know of would be to use a multi-boot utility which provides facilities for hiding other drives. One such which is free is GagBooter, but I doubt if there is a free one capable of handling Vista at this moment.

However, in effect all those sort of things do is set a single bit on the partition, as can also be done via grand old Fdisk, partition magic and others.

What can be done by reasonable experts using simple software can also be undone by a different reasonable expert, and in my view physically removing the drive is the only safe and sensible thing to do.

I am glad you did the right thing.