Protect External Drive

[kniouk]

Hi

Does anyone know how to password protect an external hard drive. I have a 80 gig portable drive with a lot of info on which I do not want easily accessable should it fall into the wrong hands.

Kniouk

 

[Raffaz]

You could use file encryption, its built into XP pro

 

[root]

file encryption or protected zip files is the only way that I can think of.

be warned however, file encryption works by storing the GUID of the user, not the username, so you'll only be able to access the files from the computer that you'd stored/encrypted them on.

 

[kniouk]

Both of those options are difficult. Protected Zip folders would mean zipping and unzipping all the time. Bit of a pain in the but, however if it is the only way then one I may have to consider.

File Encryption if it can only be used on one computer would be a problem. Defeats the option of a portable external drive.

Is there not a program that would run on an external drive to lock it?

Just thinking further, drive is formatted as FAT. Would reformatting it as NTFS (if this can be done on an external) help?

 

[Raffaz]

You can import the certificate used to encrypt the files over to the other machine if im not mistaken. Problem with this is that you sometimes get problems with using different OSes. Your probably better off using a 3rd party program like truecrypt, link below.

The drive can be converted to NTFS, and you shouldnt get data loss, but its always possible.

http://www.truecrypt.org/
http://www.usbcrypt.com/

 

[kniouk]

Thanks, I will give it a try.