Hi Folks!

Could it be possible to connect the N900 to a PC with a USB Cable only as a read only mass storage Device?

Only to protect my private data on a unsecured PC...

Thanks

That's a very interesting question. Just so I'm clear, you're basically asking if you can write-protect the N900 when plugging it into a host PC as a mass-storage USB device, so that the host PC can copy files off the N900, but not copy anything onto it, or make any changes to it?

I can see that would be useful on occasions, especially if you're worried the host PC might have a virus or something. I'm afraid I haven't heard of anything like this, though. Anyone else know?

Very idiot question, Sorry dude but it is.

What makes it an idiot question? Is it because you think it should already be obvious to everyone how to do this, or that you think wanting to write-protect your n900's storage has no value?

if you are using linux just mount it manually.. (with ro option). so yes it should be possible

I too would be interested about this, not only for the concern about viruses, but also to avoid something being accidentally deleted.

dammsaint, you are a "very idiot man", sorry but you are. The question is as legitimate as they get. It isn't blindingly obvious (especially on windows) and i don't think there's any obvious option for this either. Please enlighten us if you have the knowledge. And even it if were something really easy, not everyone is a tech wizard
I think that firmware needs changing to allow for this. Otherwise there's nothing to stop the system from mounting memory in read-write mode, which windows automatically does. I guess you could use a windows app to (re-)mount in read-only, but that doesn't really offer that much security

Thinking about it, that might turn out to be terribly useful for me.

I work in the NHS, and right now my Trust is going through a process of encoding every PC in the system to prevent people plugging flash drives in. Anyone wanting to transer data using a flash drive will need to purchase one containing the right sort of decoders. (At a price of £30)

It is just faintly possible that this system would mean I could plug n900 into an NHS computer, and transfer documents one way: then I could work on them, and email them back to n900. I could also potentially use the USB charger.

This might work:

(or gadget-lun1 for the microSD card).

I have done something similar on my pen drive (RO part, RW part) with NTFS but using ACLs. Since FAT doesn't support ACLs it might be a bit harder to implement on Maemo, wonder if NTFS-3G can be ported to Maemo.