Take the 2-minute tour ×

In Windows, a Hard Disk partition can be a lettered drive (D:\, etc.) or it can be mounted on an NTFS folder (eg. C:\Downloads) . Mounting on a folder is an incredibly useful feature but poses a problem: If anyone points to the folder where the partition is mounted and presses Shift+Del by accident, everything in the partition gets deleted except for RECYCLER and System Volume Information.

Is Windows designed to be like this or is there a workaround? I wouldn't want me or anyone using my computer to accidentally delete an entire partition's contents.


I think all the answerers have misunderstood the me. Let me give you my scenario:

I have windows installed on C (as usual). I have configured a download manager to download all the files to My Documents\Downloads and then mounted a partition onto it. I do this to avoid the risk of deleting my downloads if ever my OS goes bad and I need to format C:\.

Now let's say I have downloaded abc.exe to My Documents\Downloads\. To the context, I don't mind if My Documents\abc.exe is directly pointed to and deleted. But since My Documents\Downloads is not a normal folder, I want the OS to throw an error when My Documents\Downloads is attempted to be deleted directly or when its parent folders are deleted.

share|improve this question
add comment

3 Answers

If you are on a system where you have a belief that someone may in good probability delete the root of a drive, then the answer here is: back it up.

share|improve this answer
Hope the update makes some things clear –  Tabrez Ahmed Jan 9 '13 at 8:15
add comment

Select your drive from "My Computer", then properties and security tab. Here, you can edit the permissions to the hard drive.

enter image description here

note: the same can be done to specific folders.

EDIT based on QA info added:

@Tabrez Ahmed i believe what you want is to freeze that location so no changes are made then? if that is the case, there is a software which can freeze folders. Link provided below.


share|improve this answer
add comment

I'm confused on what you are trying to achieve. Do you want to be able to remove a mounted NTFS partition from the file system?

At the end of the day, a mounted NTFS partition is merely a pointer to a new hard disk. The hard disk needs it's own protected system folders to store information on the file structure, hence you cannot delete it. A mounted NTFS location is presented as a folder, and therefore can handle commands designed for folders, such as Shift + Del. In 'Computer' or 'My Computer', partitions are presented as drives and do not allow such functionality, of which there is no work around.

If that is not what you are asking, can you be more specific?

EDIT: new info based on the owners edit: Ok, in which case you can go into Properties/security and give everyone the 'Deny Delete' attribute on the downloads folder and parent folder respectively, being sure not to allow files and folders beneath that to inherit the permission. The screenshot presented in the second answer gives you a view of the window I'm talking about.

share|improve this answer
add comment

Your Answer


