{"id":420,"date":"2013-04-21T19:47:43","date_gmt":"2013-04-21T19:47:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/help.cleverfiles.com\/?p=420"},"modified":"2025-10-28T12:39:33","modified_gmt":"2025-10-28T12:39:33","slug":"remount-disks-partitions-in-read-only-mode","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cleverfiles.com\/help\/remount-disks-partitions-in-read-only-mode\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Should I Remount Disks/Partitions In Read-Only Mode?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Short answer<\/b>: Remounting a source drive in read\u2011only mode protects what\u2019s left of your data. It prevents your OS, background services, and even repair tools from writing new metadata or files that could overwrite the very sectors you\u2019re trying to recover. Disk Drill follows this best practice by scanning in read\u2011only mode whenever possible and can remount target volumes as read\u2011only for you.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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<\/span>What \u201cRead\u2011Only Mode\u201d Actually Is<\/b><\/span><\/h2>\n

At the operating system level, read\u2011only means the file system is mounted with flags that disallow writes\u2014no journal updates, no metadata changes, no new files, no deletes. On macOS, diskutil mount readOnly passes the same semantics as the BSD mount(8) rdonly option; even the super\u2011user can\u2019t write to the volume while it\u2019s mounted that way.<\/p>\n

On Windows, read\u2011only can be applied at the disk or volume scope via DiskPart attributes. When set, Windows treats the target as write\u2011protected until you clear the attribute. (Scope details vary by disk type and partitioning scheme.)<\/p>\n

⚠️ Important<\/b>: Read\u2011only is different from file\/folder \u201cread\u2011only\u201d checkboxes. Those are file\u2011level attributes; a read\u2011only mount or disk attribute blocks writes OS\u2011wide.<\/div>\n

<\/span>Why Read\u2011only Mounts Are Critical for Recovery<\/b><\/span><\/h2>\n

Even simple actions\u2014opening a folder, generating thumbnails, Spotlight\/Indexing, antivirus scans, Crash\/Diagnostic logs, or auto\u2011repair tools\u2014can cause silent writes. Those writes update journals, allocation maps (e.g., APFS\/HFS+), or the MFT (NTFS) and may overwrite previously deleted data. That\u2019s why the safest approach is to remount the source read\u2011only before you scan. Disk Drill\u2019s own docs warn that a system may still access the device while you browse scan results unless it\u2019s locked down.<\/p>\n

SSDs & TRIM<\/b>: If the OS already told the SSD to discard freed blocks, recovery chances drop. You can\u2019t \u201cundo\u201d a TRIM<\/a>, but you can prevent additional writes by switching the device to read\u2011only and working from a byte\u2011to\u2011byte image<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Forensics\/chain of custody<\/b>: Read\u2011only access (or a hardware write\u2011blocker) is standard practice to preserve evidence integrity.<\/p>\n

💡 PRO-TIP<\/b>: Disk Drill automatically sets your drive to read-only (when supported) before any scan or byte-to-byte backup to prevent accidental writes that could jeopardize data recovery. When the operation finishes, Disk Drill remounts the device in read\/write mode automatically. If your drive still shows read-only<\/b>, follow this guide<\/a> to remount the disk in write mode on macOS and Windows.<\/div>\n

<\/span>How Disk Drill Protects Your Data<\/b><\/span><\/h2>\n