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Allowing access to flash drives
2:13 PM EST 1/19/06
Neillsville Public Library was fortunate enough to receive two Gates computers several years ago when the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation granted them to libraries.
We have our computers hard drives locked so people cannot save things to the hard drive.
Most of them bring in floppies or CDs. Recently, I have had several people try to use a Flash Drive with the Gates. The computer tells them that the drive cannot be found. So they cannot access it.
Fortunately, I have known the two people who have tried to use them, so I made an exception for them.
I turned off the Gates, unlocked it, turned it back on, and logged in as top administrator.
I realize that this is a dangerous thing to do because it leaves the computer wide open to permenant changes. But it is the only way that I know of to let them have access to their flash drives.
I would like to know if there is another, safer way to allow patrons to use their flash drives with the Gates computers. They should have the same access that they would have with a floppy or CD.
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Re: Allowing access to flash drives
4:15 PM EST 1/19/06
as a reply to Jo Ann Gustavson.
Yes, there is a better way to do this. But first I just want to mention a better way to allow someone extra access in a pinch.
There is no reason to unlock the Centurion Guard. All you should do is log on to your administrative account while locked. The guard is a completely separate system that does nothing to block the user from doing anything. What it does is just erase everything they have done when you reboot. So if you allow them admin access and then reboot, you are still very safe.
But as to your question. It looks like you are in Wisconsin, so you have the E-6000 model with either Win2K or XP (depending on if the upgrade was done). What is happening is that the profile security isn't allowing the user to see any new drive letters that are created when you insert the flash drive.
A quick temporary way to give access is to shut down the computer, and move the CG key to the Locked position, so that the DVD drive is shut off. This has the effect of freeing up the drive letter the DVD normally uses. So anytime the DVD is locked out, patrons should be able to use flash drives.
But if you want a more permanent solution that allows access to both DVD and flash at the same time, then follow one of these sets of directions. They both involve downloading and applying a patch. Just make sure to use the one for your operating system.
For Windows XP
http://pacomputing.webjunction.org/do/DisplayContent?id=7296
For Windows 2000
http://pacomputing.webjunction.org/do/DisplayContent?id=7299
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Re: Allowing access to flash drives
10:09 AM EST 1/20/06
as a reply to Jo Ann Gustavson.
Thank you for the information. However, the two links you gave me lead to the identical article. And unfortunately, it leads to the Windows 2000 fix, and I am running Windows XP.
However, I did discover, that if you leave SG in the DVD unlocked/Hard drive locked position, and log in as exec, the person will be able to have access to their flash drive.
could you please send me the link for Windows XP article, instructions?
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Re: Allowing access to flash drives
10:15 AM EST 1/20/06
as a reply to Jo Ann Gustavson.
Here is the file for XP.
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Re: Allowing access to flash drives
11:35 AM EST 1/20/06
as a reply to Donny Frank-Rice.
Thanks for posting the file Donny. I'll have to talk to someone about getting that fixed.
Gus, you can follow those Win2K instructions, just substitute the file Donny posted. You can also ignore the note about clicking on the icon to unplug a USB drive. you don't need to do that in XP.
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Re: Allowing access to flash drives
11:41 AM EST 1/20/06
as a reply to Dale Musselman.
No problem. It's nice to be able to help sometimes rather than lurk or ask questions.
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Re: Allowing access to flash drives
12:23 PM EST 1/20/06
as a reply to Jo Ann Gustavson.
The instructions for the Win2k include a direction to unzip a file. When I follow these directions (on Win XP) this dialogue box never comes up.
I get to instruction # 8 things don't match up.
In item 8 is to double click ""driveadm.exe"" on desktop. I am assuming that this icon might say something different (because it does on my desktop).
When I double click on this, another dialogue box opens asking me if I want to Run or Cancel. Do I choose run?
In the instructions it says that I should have a dialogue box asking to unzip the file.
Am I doing something wrong here?
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Re: Allowing access to flash drives
12:30 PM EST 1/20/06
as a reply to Jo Ann Gustavson.
When you double-click the file, you will choose to run the file. This should bring up a WinZip self-extractor. It will have as its default save location C:\Windows\inf. Just leave that alone and click the "Unzip" button. That's it for that part. Then, when you open the Policy editor, you will go to OPTIONS\POLICY TEMPLATE. Click ADD, browse to C:\Windows\inf, and open the "addrive.adm" file. Then click OK. Now, when you open your policy file, you will see a listing for "disk drive restrictions". Here you can choose which drive letters to allow.
Hope this helps.
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Allowing access to flash drives
12:14 PM EST 12/22/06
as a reply to Jo Ann Gustavson.
Hi
What I did with our Gates machines that have been updated to XP is:
unlock and follow instructions to uninstall the public profile restrictions just like when installing new software then insert a flash drive, look to see what drive it uses then make a shortcut to that drive on the patron desktop.
Install public profile restrictions and lock computer and restart.
Now when a patron comes in with a flash drive they can click onto the drive shortcut on the desktop and access their flash drive.
Hope that makes some sense.
Helen
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Re: Allowing access to flash drives
11:51 AM EDT 5/3/07
as a reply to Jo Ann Gustavson.
On this same topic, I followed the Ohio directions and now when I power off and log in as all I get this message " windows cannot create the profile directory c:\profiles\all.pds You will be logged on as a local profile only. Changes to the profile will not be propagated to the server. Contact your network admin." Any suggestions on how to make this go away? It seems to work correctly. Also, this doesn't come up if you log off and log back in again. Thanks so much!
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Re: Allowing access to flash drives
7:37 PM EDT 5/9/07
as a reply to Karen Davis.
That is quite a strange error to get. It sounds like something went wrong with the profile permissions. All that patch does is replace a policy template with a slightly edited version. It shouldn't do anything else to the profile.
The other thing is that Windows should not be trying to create a profile directory under C:\Profiles anyway - it should be pulling the profile from there and creating it under C:\Documents and Settings\.
The first and by far easiest thing i would try - since you say it only happens at the first login at bootup, is to unlock the Centurion Guard, boot up and log in to all a couple times, so that you no longer see the message. Then relock and reboot and see if it comes back.
If it does, go into exec and look at C:\Profiles\all\. You should see a file named ntuser.man - if instead you see ntuser.bat, that means the profile isn't properly locked down. If the security permissions on the folder are otherwise correct (users and/or all just have read and execute), then you might just try manually changing the extension.
You can also reset the whole thing back to the way it was just by removing and replacing the Profile restrictions. And if you can't seem to fix the issue and really want the patch, try removing the restrictions and then the profiles completely, and then re-add them, and then run the patch again.
Dale
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