Can_I_make_SATA_drive_READ-ONLY.

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CAN I MAKE OLD SATA DISKS READ-ONLY?
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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!! TO TEST ANY SOLUTION ON A SPARE SATA DRIVE !!!
!!! THEN TEST AGAIN ON SAME SPARE DRIVE !!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

make your partition read-only.

This solution by Everett from another question may work for you:
Switch off "automount" by running mountvol.exe /N
Connect disk to Windows (do not mount the disk)
Run diskpart
Enter list volume
Enter select volume X (where X is the correct volume number from the previous command)
Enter att vol set readonly
Enter detail vol and ensure the read-only bit is set
Now you can mount the volume, the volume will be read-only.
To re-enable automatic mounting of new volumes use mountvol.exe /E.
To remove the read-only flag, select the volume in diskpart (use the commands above) and
enter att vol clear readonly.

From http://superuser.com/questions/560079/make-internal-hd-read-only

FURTHER READING
---------------
How to mount an NTFS partition read-only in Windows?
I feel like this is a really simple and fundamental function that Windows should have,
but so far Google has been telling me it isn't possible.
How can I mount an NTFS partition read-only in Windows?

Everett's answer works! (Thanks.)

Additional info about diskpart:

1.If you have multiple volumes in a disk, neither detail vol nor attr vol shows the correct
read-only status. It shows the read-only status of the last modified volume.
Try these: sel vol 1, attr vol set readonly, sel vol 2, attr vol clear readonly,
sel vol 1. Now detail vol shows that volume 1 is not read-only, but it actually is.

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 Can_I_make_SATA_drive_READ-ONLY.txt
2.If you modify a volume with Linux's ntfs-3g and then bring it to Windows,
it cannot be mount read-only.

3.If you run attr disk set readonly, none of the disk's volume can be mounted.
Switch off "automount" by running mountvol.exe /N
Connect disk to Windows (do not mount the disk)
Run diskpart
Enter list volume
Enter select volume X (where X is the correct volume number from the previous command)
Enter att vol set readonly
Enter detail vol and ensure the read-only bit is set
Now you can mount the volume and it will be read-only.
See also: http://crawlmsdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/cc302206.aspx

1 Note: those attributes are persistent and stored on the partition, so this is a bit
different from the "read-only mount" notion on Linux (ie. simply putting the hard drive back
in the original enclosure won't make the partition read-write,
and Windows won't be able to boot on it). Damien B Jul 12 '12 at 21:03
2 To re-enable automatic mounting of new volumes use mountvol.exe /E. To remove the readonly
flag, select the volume in diskpart (use the commands in this answer) and
enter att vol clear readonly. Ronald Dec 5 '12 at 23:52

Thank you Everett, this also answers my question. I wrote a PowerShell script according to your
explanations, may be useful for someone else. mmdemirbas Mar 23 '13 at 21:03
it also works for volumes mounted on directories instead of dos units! thanks!
1 Under Windows 8.1, mountvol /n did not prevent drive from being automounted.
One should consider using this beforehand:
petri.co.il/configure_usb_disks_to_be_read_only_in_xp_sp2.htm

From http://superuser.com/questions/213005/how-to-mount-an-ntfs-partition-read-only-in-windows

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