FAT and FAT32 Have No Permissions

Because the FAT and FAT32 file systems that Windows 2003 supports along with NTFS include no object mechanisms for associating attributes with files and directories, files stored in a FAT or FAT32 formatted volume have no associated permissions. Anybody who's allowed to log on to a Windows 2003 Server with a FAT or FAT32 partition can access any of the files in that partition. This helps explain why you may want to restrict who's allowed to work on your servers, as well as why you should physically lock up your servers.

Tip 

The reason why FAT partitions are still around is that a dual-boot machine that runs Windows 9 x and Windows 2003 together must include a FAT partition from which the other operating system can boot. This might be a FAT32 partition for Windows 98, but we recommend FAT because Windows 2003 can read that partition when it's running and more operating systems can read FAT partitions than any other kind of file system.

Taking ownership of objects in NTFS

An owner of an object can always modify its permissions, no matter which permissions are already set for that object. This permission exists, at least in part, to sidestep the Deny trap that can occur when an object's owner mistakenly sets permissions for a general group , such as Everyone or Authenticated Users. (These two default groups are discussed further in Chapter 18.)

If the Everyone group is assigned Deny for all permissions of an object, that group includes anyone who may want to access that object. Unless an administrator or the object's creator (its owner by default) can reset permissions to be a little less restrictive , no one can access that object or any objects that it contains.

Full Control is important because it grants the object's owner the power to change access to that object and to change services that apply to the object. In essence, Full Control is your get-out-of-jail-free card!

 

Warning 

Only Windows 2003, Windows XP, Windows 2000, and Windows NT can read NTFS partitions, so be careful when reformatting partitions on dual- or multiboot machines! Plus, Windows 2003, Windows XP, and Windows 2000 all use NTFS version 5. Windows NT uses NTFS version 4 by default, but if you apply Service Pack 4 or later, Windows NT is upgraded to include NTFS version 5.