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Allow users to format removable hard disks in Windows XP

Only administrators are allowed to format and eject removable hard disks in Windows XP Home and Windows XP Professional which could become a problem if you normally use a normal user account in Windows to increase system security or have to work on a system where you only have user access rights.

A Registry key controls which users may format or eject removable hard disks in Windows. The key can be changed by administrators to give additional user groups the right to format or eject the hard drives.

Open the Registry by pressing Windows R, typing regedit and hitting enter. Navigate to the Registry key HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon and look for the string allocatedasd. The default value is 0 which means that only administrators may format or eject removable hard disks. If you want to change this you can set it to 1 to give the right to Power Users or to 2 to give the right to normal users as well.

Dasd sounds like a random string but it actually means Direct Access Storage Device. If you use Windows XP Professional you can also start gpedit.msc instead and navigate through Local Computer Policy > Computer Configuration > Windows Settings > Security Settings > Local Policies > Security Options and double-click the entry Devices: Allowed to format and eject removable media and change the setting from Administrators to the one that suits your needs.

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About the Author:Martin Brinkmann is a journalist from Germany who founded Ghacks Technology News Back in 2005. He is passionate about all things tech and knows the Internet and computers like the back of his hand. You can follow Martin on Facebook or Twitter.

Author: , Saturday February 9, 2008 -
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Responses so far:

  1. Flyer says:

    cool finding my friend
    danke

    love
    f.

  2. Martin says:

    Hej mate,

    great to see you. Hope everything is alright ?

    take care my friend,
    Martin

  3. Jim says:

    > if you normally use a normal user account

    it is foolish to websurf in an admin user context

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