In one of the previous articles, I covered how to write-protect removable USB drives. Today, we'll see how to write protect a specific non-removable disk partition or the entire disk drive without using third-party tools.
There are many reasons to make a disk write-protected. It can be useful as an additional security option in some environments. Once you enable write protection for a drive or a partition, it will become read-only. Let's see how it can be done.
To make a disk readonly in Windows 10, do the following.
- Open an elevated command prompt.
- Type or copy-paste diskpart and press the Enter key. This will launch DiskPart. DiskPart is a text-mode command interpreter bundled with Windows 10. This tool enables you to manage objects (disks, partitions, or volumes) by using scripts or direct input at a command prompt.
- In DiskPart, type the following command
list disk
In the output, see the disk which you are about to make read-only.
- To continue with the required disk, you need to "select" it.
In the following command use the disk number you got from the previous command.sele disk DISK_NUMBER
For example, I need disk #1.
- To make the whole disk read-only, type the following command:
attributes disk set readonly
All partitions on the disk will be read-only.
The undo command is
attributes disk clear readonly
To make a partition readonly in Windows 10, do the following.
- Open an elevated command prompt.
- Type or copy-paste diskpart and press the Enter key.
- To find a specific partition, type
list volume
- "Select" the required volume by typing the following command:
select volume VOLUME_NUMBER
Replace the volume number with a number you got from the previous command.
- Make it read-only using the following command
attributes volume set readonly
The specified volume will be read-only.
The undo command is:
attributes volume clear readonly
That's it.
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Please note that the diskpart read only flag works only on the computer on which the command was issued. On another comptuer, the read only flag will not be respected – anyone can write on it.
Is there a way to make the C: drive or the system/ boot partition read-only?
You’ll break the OS. I don’t recommend you doing that.
This operation is not allowed on the current boot, system or pagefile volume. It is also not allowed on any volume on a basic MBR disk that contains the boot, system or pagefile volume.
An alternate way with PowerShell:
Get-Disk # show disk numbers
Set-Disk -Number 1 -IsReadonly $true # for example disk 1 ($false for r/w)