CD-R/W messed up

[johngalt]

and I bet greater than 75% of users with NT-based OSs *are* running with an account that has computer administrator privileges....

[Nikos]

and I bet greater than 75% of users with NT-based OSs *are* running with an account that has computer administrator privileges....

Yeah, that's probably the main reason worms and viruses spread that easily.

Fortunately, XP still doesn't allow you to format your C: drive (or mount point) even when having admin privileges. It should be pointed out though, that "C: drive" is just a common term for the "main" partition in your PC. If someone has installed XP in D: or E:, doing a "format C:" just to see if it's allowed is like shooting yourself in the foot....

[johngalt]

yup - admin level privileges. Gotta love them. I was exploring for a while running with lua (limited user access, not the programming language) but then decided to continue to forage into Linux instead.

I wasn't brave enough to follow it through, but logged in as administrator (not an admin-enabled account, but as *the* administrator account) entering format C: in cmd got me a prompt to enter the current volume label - I didn't proceed because I cannot remember for sure if there is another prompt (I believe there is - where it tells you that this will destroy all data and asks if I want to continue) but at least there are *some* checks and balances.

[Burning Gundam]

Yeah, that's probably the main reason worms and viruses spread that easily.

Fortunately, XP still doesn't allow you to format your C: drive (or mount point) even when having admin privileges. It should be pointed out though, that "C: drive" is just a common term for the "main" partition in your PC. If someone has installed XP in D: or E:, doing a "format C:" just to see if it's allowed is like shooting yourself in the foot....

So if I Format my C dive it won't delete anything?

[NetSoerfer]

Just don't...

Nikos, please stop posting stuff like this, I don't want to explain to an unexperienced user who didn't understand everything you said why his Windows installation (probably including important files) is gone...

[Nikos]

Nikos, please stop posting stuff like this, I don't want to explain to an unexperienced user who didn't understand everything you said why his Windows installation (probably including important files) is gone...

Point taken. Although the best way to learn about computers, is to blow everything up first!

[Nikos]

So if I Format my C dive it won't delete anything?

If you're lucky, it will.

(That was not a typo; we're talking about Windows here...)

[Methadon]

Point taken. Although the best way to learn about computers, is to blow everything up first!

Hahaha! Is that how you learned about computers?

[Nikos]

Hahaha! Is that how you learned about computers?

Comming from a Unix (and also MS-DOG) background, the answer is a resounding yes! You can't imagine how good it feels to have a script that evaluates to a "rm * ~" instead of a "rm *~" while wondering where your files have gone!