Data Security in Hard Disk Drives

The data security arises when there is a discussion about the data or the sensitive information. The security of the data within the hard disk is as much important as the data itself is. The security of the data in the hard disk drive is to protect the data from any data loss and the prevention of the data from any unauthorized access. The data or the information; when it is sensitive will require that much level of the security. There are many software and utilities that are available for the hard disk drives to provide the security of the data. The WinMagic’s SecureDoc is one such software that has the feature to provide the encryption to the entire hard disk drive to protect the data.


In the CD ROM’s or the DVD ROM’s the data can be only read and once burned over it then again cannot be written or modified. The operating system should have the characteristics of providing the facility of data security. The operating system is responsible for providing the security feature to the files and the directories. Which files should have the read access and which files should have the write access or execute authority is what the job of the operating system.


The Unix and the Linux operating system provide such facilities. The security of the data is much low in the Windows operating system. The data security is somewhat a compromised topic in the Windows operating system. There are some utilities that can be used to provide the feature of locking the files and the folders in the operating system. But each and every time the software asks for a password. In case there are thousands of files then in such a situation the user cannot remember all the passwords. The user finds it a frustrating job to enter a password each time a file or a directory is to be accessed.


The data security in the hard disk drive becomes severe when the hard disk is shared over a network. When the hard disk drive has the sharable access then the data security is of more importance. Here the other users apart from the owner of the data have also the permission to access the data. The internet is also a wide network that has a large number of computers connected to it. The hard disk data security can also be achieved by designing an effective file system.


The NTFS stands for the New Technology File System – is the file system that is so designed that the goal of it is to provide the encryption to the data which is stored in the hard disk drive. The primary purpose while designing the NTFS was to provide access control and the data security. There is much complex system of security that is used in the NTFS.


The file system in the Linux or the Unix operating systems is different from that of the Windows. This contributes to the data integrity and reliability of the data in the hard disk drive. The data security feature is implemented in the Unix operating system with the help of the file permissions like the read, write and execute permissions. There are several user groups in the Unix operating system that provides the data security. Only the owner of the file has all the permission that is of read, write and execute over a file.