What does "Block removable media" mean exactly?

In the Help file I read

Does it mean that Autorun is disabled for USB pens?

Does it mean that I cannot modify any file in a USB pen? (= I cannot write or delete files on it... does "block" mean that?)

Does it mean that my USB drives (they are removable media) are "blocked" someway?

 

those USB (and USB only) devices are not accessible by the OS, it does not impact the auto run settings of the OS, however due the inaccessibility autorun cannot be executed when this option is enabled. it does not apply to eSata or PCIe memory card readers such as SD/MMC/xD

 

Could you be more "easy"?

When I talk about USB I mean
- USB stick memories, or
- USB "external" disk drives

What is the practical behaviour with these two devices?

 

any USB device with a file system, be it stick, pen drive, navigation device, mobile phone, hard disk, the like. devices like USB TV or infrared receivers will still work properly.

USB devices with a file system will be inaccessible by the OS, i.e. it cannot read the structure of the file system. with USB block enabled on 7x64 this pops up when inserting a USB stick



in explorer it shows following when trying to access the USB media



you may try it your end if the above does not suffice

 

Please see this ESET knowledge base article:
How do I block removable media such as USB drives, external hard drives, etc

* This is an opt-in feature and is not a default setting.

 

how does it answer the question of the OP?

 

Please, read this:


https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showpost.php?p=1747339&postcount=7



Thanks,



Carlos

 

Ok, guys, thanks you all.

It seems to me that this feature, then, is useful as a last resource (or an emergency resource) and not to be used normally.

 

Yes, though it can be handy on public or work pc's to prevent everyone from pluggin in their infected USB drives.
But indeed, for personal use, it's more for like emergency

 

This is not true and my biggest complaint...

Enabling this option also blocks IDE/EIDE (and I'm fairly sure SATA) based CD/DVD ROM drives, which makes it useless to me (since we need these).

 

You can define exceptions for CD/DVDROM drives.

 

Some users have a D:, some an E:, and some are F: or G:... I can only define an exception for one that is on MY system when creating the policy, so no way to pre-define all of them...

Regardless, I shouldn't have to. USB and IDE/SATA based devices should be considered separately - *and* it should be possible to provide read-only access (after scanning with advanced heuristics) to all, again, without having to add specific exceptions.