Password Protect Hard Drive

[atomichybrid]

Hi all,

I was wondering if its possible to password protect your hard drive without the need of 3rd party apps and use the Windows OS natively. I've used Ubuntu back in the day and to mount other hard drives on the computer requires password (except portable hard drives), so I'm looking to use something similar in Windows 8 since its my new OS.

If its possible, I would greatly appreciate it. I've tried googling this type of question but they dont lead me to the right solution, so I'm here to get some answers from the pros.

Cheers.

 

[iPwn]

Windows 8 Pro/Enterprise/Ultimate have BitLocker built in. There are a few things you need to do in order to get BitLocker to allow the whole disk encryption if your computer does not have a TPM (Trusted Platform Module) device, but I have all my PC's whole disk encrypted with BitLocker.

EDIT: If you do not have Pro(+) and still want a free solution (I know you said no third party...), TrueCrypt offers whole disk encryption and is freeware.

If you encrypt your drive, use a password you won't forget and make the backup CD. If you lose the password and that disk... you're SOL on getting anything from that drive.

 

[setishock]

What if you don't want to encrypt the drive just make access to it password protected?

 

[atomichybrid]

Yes kinda like what setishock suggests, I basically want the hard drive access to be password protected.

 

[setishock]

Save yourself some grief. Password protect the log in. If you have more than one user make sure they all have a different password. When you walk away from your computer log out the user. That's you.
Then in the screen saver window check the box that says to require a password. What that does is when you disturb the mouse or keyboard and the screen save quits running it will ask for a password. Wrong password and it just sits there. When the time out expires it goes back to the screen saver.
It's down and dirty but it works.

 

[iPwn]

Physical Access trumps everything... except strong encryption.

Someone steals the PC, they don't need your login, they only need to plug your drive into another machine.

 

[atomichybrid]

@ setishock yeah I have a password protected login but I was edging for something different. I currently have 2 hard drives and logging out would do no justice since other users can access the 2nd hard drive. Basically I want to password protect the hard drive so other users who try to access it they would have no access unless an admin password is put in. Not entirely sure its possible, but if there is a need to look for 3rd party app I would like to take a look and see if it is ideal.

@ iPwn yeah no way of beating that when the hard drive is unplugged or boot into linux or something. For now I just want the software side of things to work out.

 

[setishock]

Or you could use a USB external drive and just take the bloody thing with you when you walk away.

 

[atomichybrid]

well if theres no such thing I guess I have to look at other alternatives, thought it might be possible but oh well.

 

[OhSnapWord]

Maybe this is more of what you might be looking for.

BitLocker Drive Encryption - Microsoft Windows