Make flash drive read only with no copying

Here is the Situation. I have a 2h video of a high school play that i am editing and selling but with final cut you can only export 480 p video on dvd so i am going to sell hd digital copies on flash drives my question is can i make it so that the flash drive are read only and copy protected so it can't be distributed can i format the flahs drive insuch a way a way that prevents copying?

jfoppes wrote:
… can i format the flahs drive insuch a way a way that prevents copying?
technicallly, to playback you have to 'copy' content (from stick/disk/whatever to device) ....
So, the harder you make it to 'copy protect' your content, the more inconvenient it gets for your paying customers!
for example, on commercial DVDs I'm 'forced' to watch minutes of promos and 'legal advice', talking to me like I'm a 1st degree suspect No fun! And: When I like to watch/listen on diff. devices. again trouble to 'rip' it (anyone remembering the first slogan for iTunes? "Rip.Mix.Burn." Holy innocence ........... LOL
Forget the few copy-cats. Convince by quality (e.g. spelling ) .
Deliver an excellent product, perhaps bundled with some 'extras' (a nice designed box, with pics/t-shirt/memorabilia/…) And, hey - who copies a school-play????

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USB Flash Drive: Read-only filesystem

Hi
I'm trying to format a usb flash drive using various tools but they all say that it's a read-only file system. The drive is not mounted and I'm running as root. If I try to mount the drive like so with the command
sudo mount -o rw,users /dev/sdc1 /media/myflashdrive
I don't get any errors and when I go to /media/myflashdrive I can see and edit all the files (only as root however). However, any changes are not persistent. For example, if I delete any files or run
sudo rm -rf /media/myflashdrive/*
it seems to work and ls doesn't show anything, but then if a reopen the drive, the files are back.
I've tried this on other computers and even in Windows but nothing can put a scratch on it. I heard something about there being a certain bit in the first sector which can be flipped to make a drive read-only but I think it only applied to Windows.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated, but if I can't format the drive I'll probably use some thermite to toast the data on it.

Hmm. I wasn't very clear: my drive was usable originally but it stopped working while I was using Windows (I just plugged it in one day and it was read-only) and now that I use Linux I thought I'd try to fix it (I have been told that linux can do anything but I'm not so sure). I suppose it could just be a physical error on the drive but it's not got any marks or anything.
Just a thought here, if it was a physical problem, would it be possible to 'reset' it with an electromagnet or by shorting it out or would this just frazzle the chip? Maybe not the right forums for that kind of question.
Last edited by JJ.Eastwood (2011-05-26 19:50:56)

Why does my Macbook Pro make every flash drive read only?

Anybody else having this problem? I can write to a flash drive once on my Macbook Pro. After I remove it, it becomes read-only, but only on my Macbook (I still have read/write access on other computers). Happens with every flash drive, regardless of brand or size. File systems are all FAT 32.

I'd make a sound too if i was put into a bag haha.
Only thing i could think of it it has a mind of its own or your putting your computer to sleep. Try shutting down your mac before placing in your bag and see if that changes things.

Flash drive read only but in FAT32 format

I use my flash drive to house my itunes library but recently whenever I try to add a song to my itunes (and thus also copying that file to the drive) I get the error message that I don't have the privilege to copy to the drive. I checked to see what format it was and if that was the problem but it's still FAT32, as it always has been. Any insights?

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ExFat Flash Drive Read Only

I let a friend borrow my 64G Flash Drive and he returned it with a bunch of unwanted files. At first I tried deleting them but all I got was a dull "beep" so I figured I'd just erase the whole thing and reformat. Opened disk utility and it was recognized but the options to erase are greyed out. Looked at the drive's info and it says "Read Only".
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I did contact the manufacturer and was told the drive should work under OS X but they have never tested it and would not allow me to return it because the purchase date was beyond the 60-day warranty. I did tell them that I would alert the Mac community about the problem and suggest Mac users avoid PNY flash drives or other drives.
Because it was a 64G flash drive I paid a handsome price for it from Staples. I returned it to Staples and asked for my money back but again, according to my receipt, it was beyond their warranty period. Of course, they took me to the locked flash drive cabinet and suggested I purchase another brand but I was ticked and promised I would not buy another item from them.
I've asked the (former) friend who borrowed it to replace it with a different brand and mailed it to him because it contains all of his files. He has not responded thus far and I doubt that he ever will. Its too bad. I'll never loan another Flash Drive to anyone again, good friend or not.

Usb flash drive read only problem [solved]

Hi, im using spacefm, i have udevil and udisks2 installed, i can read my USB flash drive but i cannot delete files, i tried gparted that use spacefm as well and i can delete files from the usb flash drive with no problems, any ideas?
i solved i installed ntfs-3g and i can delete files again
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Last edited by adcdam (2013-04-08 01:01:22)

I installed it and got this error : now my Macbook wont even see the flash drive...

USB flash drive 'Read only' problem

Hi everyone,
I have a Trescend USB flash drive 16 Gb, and when I plug it into my desktop (using windows 7 64 bits) I'm able to write or read any file I want. When I plug it into my mid-2010 MacBook Pro 15' w/ lastest version of OS X Lion, the permission are 'Read Only' and I can't seem to be able to change the permission.
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I installed it and got this error : now my Macbook wont even see the flash drive...

How can I make Keynote files read-only (eg: to share with students)?

I would like to share some keynote files with students, and I would like to set them up as read-only, so that the students can tap the screen, read my presentation, but not alter it. I've tried to set the files up as read-only on my iMac desktop, but when I load the file onto my iPad, it's still editable.
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as long as $PATH is set, you shouldn't need to reconnect them (i think). if you send the list of apps through | awk -F '/' '{print $NF}' | that'll strip the path
/edit: added the "(i think)" part
Last edited by brisbin33 (2009-06-02 21:33:06)

Which USB 64GB flash drives are compatible with Mac Mini?

I need to use a USB 64GB flash drive, formatted for both PC and Apple, with my Mac Mini. The largest USB flash that Apple sells is 32GB. Which USB 64GB flash drives are compatible with Mac Mini. If most are, are there any that I should avoid? Thanks.

I'm assuming that when I connect the USB to the Mac it gets formatted for Mac. Then I follow your directions and it gets formatted for Windows, in addition to Mac. I'd choose ExFAT since it is a 64GB USB.
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About the expense: Fry's is advertising a 64GB Patriot USB Flash Drive for $22.99. Is that considered expensive for a USB flash drive?
That'd be dirt-cheap, I'd say. Expect it to be very slow.
I've read answers that are somewhat related to my question, and some warn that USB's are slow. Maybe I should consider another option?
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The advantage of USB is that it's widely spread, and lots of media is on the market, making it very affordable. The only other affordable alternative is an external HDD, I'd say, where you get much bigger drives for less money than a small 64GB USB flash drive...
My main objective is that, in switching from Windows to Mac, I want to be able to access Windows files that I've backed up to a Seagate Free Agent. I bought a LaCie with the Mac Mini, but will still want to use the Free Agent. I need to reformat the Free Agent for the Mac (hopefully for Mac and Windows; while learning to use the Mac and Numbers and Pages I may have emergency jobs that I'll need to do with Excel and Word on the PC), so my plan is to move the files on the Free Agent to the 64GB flash drive, reformat the Free Agent so that, hopefully, the Mac will read the files on it after I move them back to the Free Agent from the USB.
Why don't you copy the content of the Free Agent meanwhile to the Mac's HDD? Then copy it back after re-formatting the Free Agent? Why would you need an extra USB drive?
Any ideas you have about how to achieve this objective will be appreciated. Maybe I should buy a third, small, external hard drive? Maybe there is a way to move the Windows files from the Seagate to the LaCie?
Exactly... you seem to have already extra space on the LaCie drive...
My understanding is that the Apple Store does not want to move files from an external hard drive to the Mac.
I don't know where this could origin, but that's as wrong as it is funny. What has the App Store to do with you moving some files from one drive to another?
I should add that I don't have enough remaining free space on the PC hard drive to hold the files on the Free Agent, so that is not an option.
No, but you have a Mac with a built-in HDD, and you got the LaCie drive. Again, the Mac should have neither a problem to read from the Free Agent, nor to write to the LaCie.
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It seems that your understanding is that (a) a drive comes in a particular format for, or not for Mac, and you can't change it, and (b) that for some reason (App Store?!) Macs aren't allowed to copy files from external files. Well, both is wrong...

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What's with the hard drives customers buy from the apple stores?
I have had this hard drive for a few weeks now and after reformatting the drive 5 times and coped a few items to the drive a few days latter it says read only you cant copy to this drive WHAT THE F#%$
Please help with this on going FULT with apple and its products..
(using a iMac with a Porsche design)

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(27993)

Second SATA Drive Read Only

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According to "http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=75320"
"Warning: NTFS formatted drives cannot be used in a Macintosh (except as read-only with Mac OS X 10.,3 as noted above). If you attempt to use a NTFS formatted disk, upon starting up the Mac OS will prompt you to format the drive. Do not format the drive, doing so will erase the contents of the drive. If you have an NTFS formatted disk, you must use another method to transfer the data from the PC to the Macintosh".
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Just a suggestion.
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Make USB mount read only.

Hello again,
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Greetings,
While you can make a USB device read only, you can't make a port read only. There are ways to disable a USB port, but that's about it.
You can also use a OS X Server and with it, you can deny access to the device, but to make it (the port) read only, I don't think that's possible with any OS. You could mark the internal hard drives read only, as well, but that would be a major pain.
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M.

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The originals were over 3 yrs old low end consumer models and 'due' for retirement to less frequent backup duties.
The Black or Blue Caviar 640GB costs slightly more but also 10-15% faster.
I wouldn't worry about temps, but I would monitor them, and if necessary boost the fans 200-300 rpm to help out.
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Please guid eme how to make the column read only in the list without using the coding.
Vij

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Paul Stork SharePoint Server MVP
Principal Architect: Blue Chip Consulting Group
Blog: http://dontpapanic.com/blog
Twitter: Follow @pstork
Please remember to mark your question as "answered" if this solves your problem.

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Make flash drive read only with no copying

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