how to protect a partition?

[hmp_khauff]

i have pc (tower) and windows xp installed, i want to do something like hp notebooks that have a partition recovery where you can't format or write files. i want to create a partition that can't format and write any files, but can't execute files in the partition.

how can i do it? without any software, only using windows or something else.

[BlackST]

Hidden / locked partition.

[hmp_khauff]

how?

[wiseleo]

You answered your question by stipulating "Without using any software".

It will not be possible using just built-in utilities shipped with Windows. OK, it is possible, but it will be very complicated.

Consider using dedicated backup solutions. If you backup data to the same drive, it's not a backup anyway when that hard drive eventually dies.

Another option is to look into Acronis products. They are relatively inexpensive and do a good job at enabling you to recover in case of system failure.

Your most critical data should be backed up offsite. At the very least, setup a dedicated gmail account and e-mail the files to that account. It would be recommended to password-protect those files. One way would be to create a zip file and assign a password to it. This will teach you how: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/306531

[prodata]

there is a solution to do this using GIGABYTE Mainboard. XRecovery software Bundled from Gigabyte can do this JOB.