I would recommend giving one more try to setting the permissions. It addresses the problem native way instead of various workarounds provided by tools. What you need is actually one of basic functionalities of every operating system, it just has to be configured according to your needs. It is
- Well-implemented so if set properly, there is minimal chance that users or some malware launched under their account get through it. This cannot be always said of third-party tools.
- Well-known by advanced users so you can have access to much broader support, tutorials and Q&A base than you would get for independent app. (Example.)
Create a different PC user for you so you will be using different user account than rest of users of the PC. Then modify file permissions of your data folders to be accessible/writable only from your user account. One of many tutorials. Test it on single folder first, it is faster. Later, permission settings can be applied directly to drive (for example E:
) so you can control access to drive by one action.
Slightly improved approach is to give/revoke permissions to user groups, not to individual users. Then you assign your users to these groups what has instant effect on what they can do and what cannot. But this is beneficial when you have many users in the system.
This paragraph goes slightly beyond the topic: If other users sometimes do not know 'what they are doing' (e.g. there is possibility they can install something or format your drives) consider making their user account(s) standard ones instead of keeping them with administrator privileges.
I would recommend going way of permissions although it could need some more learning at the beginning. But once you learn it, you can use it to your benefit on many places.