Write proofing an HDD?

[Kion]

My mom and my wife managed to get viruses on their computers. Both of the only use the computer for skype and surfing the internet. They rarely save anything to the hard drive. I was kind of thinking, I may get a 32GB SSD (mostly because I want to play with one) and then installing windows, set it up to their preference and then make it so that the computer wipes any data when it shuts down.

Does anyone know the software to do this? I've know schools and pc rooms do this but my googling isn't getting any results. Or maybe Chrome OS? Any advice for a good set up would be appreciated.

[Ghostcat]

Deep Freeze can do that.

http://www.faronics.com/all-products/

[Kion]

Anything, in the range of free?

[Ghostcat]

That is a little tougher...

EDIT: http://forums.techguy.org/all-other-software/708554-other-progams-like-deep-freeze.html
That thread may help.

[Sinue_v2]

Have you tried setting them up with their own User logins, then as administrator going in and setting an absurdly low disk quota for each user on that hard disk? Once they exceed that quota, if they want to save anything, they'll have to use a removable media or disk storage. You'll probably also want to tinker with their internet settings and set their browsers up so that they don't cache webpages, save cookies, or any of that other fun stuff that will eat up their quota rather quickly. It'll slow the internet down for them a bit, but it should keep their websites off your system.

I don't know if this is really the solution you're after, because I don't think it's going to stop the Java script or Flash triggered viral nastiness (just stuff you can catch by opening executables, batches, and zips), but it seems to fit the criteria of "write-proofing" an HDD.

If you're looking for virus protection, you need to get a good firewall, process guard, and virus scanner. Locking the HDD isn't really going to help all that much.

[Kion]

I tried the demo of Deep Freeze. It made the computer really slow and was a pain to uninstall.

Most viruses stick themselves in the win32 folder and make a mess of things. I thought that write proofing the HDD and booting from the same hard image each time would keep the computer clean. I guess i'll stick with the normal keeping windows update on, and windows security essentials. Maybe I'll look at some of the admin options.

What I'm really hoping for is, is for android to make its way to more smart books. Having a light weight thin client with just internet and skype for my computer illiterate family members seems like the way to go.

[HUnewearl_Meira]

What you need, is to set the computer up to its ideal state, then create a disk image that can be stored elsewhere, such as a 32GB flash drive, perhaps. When something goes horribly wrong, you just wipe the hard drive, and restore the image. A quick Google search should give you the information you need.

Alternatively, if you're not dead-set on running Windows, you could set up a DVD or flash drive with Slax (http://www.slax.org/) on it, which will allow you to load the entire OS up into RAM, removing the need for a hard drive, entirely.