program to lock/hide files

basically I've got my laptop and I need to bring it to skool. Only problem is if our principal find any "bad" music or pics. ( note: i go to small privite school so anything that doesnt have to do with the bible is considered bad). Now my questions is, is there any free programs out there that can hide, or lock files?

Thxs for the help

Well if the machine belongs to the school. Theres not much help from this forum. If the machine is yours. Burn the files to a disc and keep them at home. Then the machine is clean for the schools standards.

the laptop is mine, but i wanna be able to leave it all on my machine

Enablingwolf said:

Well if the machine belongs to the school. Theres not much help from this forum. If the machine is yours. Burn the files to a disc and keep them at home. Then the machine is clean for the schools standards.

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please leave parenting at the door.

anyway i pretty sure in windows u can add passwords to folders. try googling that

Amarkarian said:

please leave parenting at the door.

anyway i pretty sure in windows u can add passwords to folders. try googling that

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Uh yeah, thanks for the jab.

Good help with the google comment. That helps alot.

Here try it like this...

Make an account for your home use, one for school. Then any files you do not want showing make private. Right click them Properties|sharing|Make folder private (radio). This way, you have a private account for non school use. Then the school won't be worrying over the content on your personal machine.

When your at school make sure your on the school account.

bah, just do it the easy way.

use WinRar, Since WinRar has the option of letting you put a password on any RAR's you make. Rar the files you want to hide. And put a password on it. No one can extract or view the rared files, without the password. Even if they copy the rar over to another PC, the password is still on there.


And you can just name the rar's something odd. Like the numbers to a passage, Or the name of a specific prophet. If they see the Rar Named something from the bible, they will overlook it instantly. And if they do try to open it up, They can't get into it.

the rar file thing is a good idea but use a complicated password (long, upper case, lower case and numbers) incase they try to crack it.
the account thing is a good thing too. be sure to use complicated passwords that you can remember but can not be guessed easily.
maybe interlace your phone number with your last name.
example:
phone number is 675-4877 nlast name is willis
password is 6w7i5l4l8i7s7. lets see anybody crack that!

Rarring it all is secure, but not userfriendly as you have to extract it everytime you need it, so you'll also need more disk space (for the rar archive and the extracted files)
I would do it through another way, but I don't recommend it if you don't have much experience with computers and partitions:
Create a new partition and put all your files in there. It will have it's own drive letter in My Computer.
When you want to hide it, go to disk manager and right-click on this partition. There will be an option that let you select drive letters/paths to this partition (don't remember how it's called). Go there and set the drive letter to None. Now you can't access this partition anymore.
When you want to access your files, go there again and give it a drive letter. It will be back in My Computer.

Note: if you don't have any experience with partitioning a hard disk, I highly disrecommend this as you can easily loose all your files! Make a back-up before!

check this out

http://www.pcworld.com/howto/article/0,aid,110663,00.asp

Since it is your laptop - does your school have a right to even access it - even if you are on their property?

Do they have any rules that state they have the right to access your private personal information while on their property ?

^^

i was thinking the same thing.. i dont think they can randomly check unless they have good reasoning...

axcrypt-free fast & will even hide the name of the file

I've used a program called Hide Folder XP. Basiclly you tell it a folder to protect, and when you hide it, that folder just doesn't exist as far as the system is concerned... even in safe mode... not free but pretty cheap...

I think either making another account and making your files private, or raring it all would be the simplest way to go, except if your school is THAT strict, they may make you show them the contents of the rar file anyway.

Mr.Guvernment said:

Since it is your laptop - does your school have a right to even access it - even if you are on their property?

Do they have any rules that state they have the right to access your private personal information while on their property ?

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I think private school can pretty much do what they want, and can suspend or kick students out for pretty much any reason. You can even get in severe trouble for something they HEAR about you doing outside of class.