Member Avatar for swpvideo

I am trying to find a way to create an un-deletable partition/content on a USB pen drive.
Basically my client wants to give customers a pen drive as a welcome gift with some multimedia and document content already recorded on a partition of the drive. The rest of the drives capacity would be for the customer to use as normal. Is there a software or method I can use to prevent erasure of this content?

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by rproffitt

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A short, practical update that ties the old thread together and gives modern, reliable options.

The quick reality: ordinary file-permissions or a “read‑only” folder are not a secure solution — an admin user can take ownership or simply reformat the stick. was right to be skeptical of permission-only tricks; Windows tools allow ownership changes and drives can be reformatted. (howtogeek.com)

What found back then relied on the same idea U3 used: a firmware-level, emulated CD (ISO9660) partition that appears read‑only to the host. That trick worked for autorun and made content hard to remove on many PCs, but it was a hardware/firmware behavior (not a filesystem permission) and has well-known compatibility limits. (en.wikipedia.org)

If the goal is “give customers a stick with undeletable content and leave the rest writable,” use purpose-built media rather than trying to patch consumer sticks. Three real, commercially supported approaches are:

  • WORM / ROM USB drives (write-once or permanently read-only partitions). ()
  • Controller/firmware features that present a read‑only “virtual CD” + a writable partition (factory-programmed). (hsc-us.com)
  • Managed/secure USBs with controller-enforced read-only modes and fleet tooling (for large runs or remote management). (kanguru.com)

Recommended workflow: choose a vendor (specify WORM or “virtual CD-ROM” + writable area), supply a master ISO/content set, request production/duplication and test on every target platform (Windows, macOS, kiosks, Android). Expect higher unit cost vs commodity sticks, but those solutions actually prevent erasure in a way file attributes cannot. ()

For low-budget giveaways where casual protection is enough, label the content and set read-only flags — but do not promise “undeletable.” For true immutability, order WORM/firmware-locked USBs from a supplier. This answers , and echoes ’s note about specialty drives.

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Member Avatar for freshfitz

I'm going to say that's not possible what you may try is creating a folder with read only rights and hope they aren't smart enought to go into security permissions take ownership of the folder and change the permissions

Member Avatar for swpvideo

I have just found a method that works, so for others who want to create an "Autoload, undeletable partition on a USB stick" follow this link http://blog.usboffice.kr/?p=146

Member Avatar for freshfitz

I was wondering if there was a hack for the u3 cause they come with what you are talking about. Let us know how you make out

Member Avatar for swpvideo

It worked a treat!!

Member Avatar for freshfitz

Awesome

Member Avatar for Maestro123

Hi there.

I'm wanting to do the exact same. Want to put media on a flasdrive and hand to customers but want the media that I put on the drive to be undeleteable.

The link supplied in previous replies doesn't open .

Any advice plz

Member Avatar for Paresh_1

I am trying to find a way to create an un-deletable partition/content on a USB pen drive.
Basically my client wants to give customers a pen drive as a welcome gift with some multimedia and document content already recorded on a partition of the drive. The rest of the drives capacity would be for the customer to use as normal. Is there a software or method I can use to prevent erasure of this content?

Member Avatar for rproffitt

@Paresh. There are companies that create such. So far if you use a common off the shelf drive, I can format it using a number of tools. The drives these companies use are "special."

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