Hard drive password protection?

[SirChick]

I have an external hard drive that i want to put a password on to prevent people looking into my hard drive which holds pretty important and private documents, is it possible to do such a thing for a hard drive?

[peterb]

have a look at truecrypt - www.truecrypt.org It will password protect and encrypt files or the whole drive - but if you encrypt the whole drive it will only work on a macine with the truecrypt app installed, or on a machine on which you have admin privileges. Read the tutorial on the website carefully, but it is a very good application.

[SirChick]

Hmm this is too complicated for me, i just want some thing simple to place a password on it. Its not hackers im concerned with just want to stop kids getting at the hard drive and loosing all my stuff.

[peterb]

Hmm this is too complicated for me, i just want some thing simple to place a password on it. Its not hackers im concerned with just want to stop kids getting at the hard drive and loosing all my stuff.

I thought that - but in practice it is remarkably simple - download it and give it a try.

However, if it the kids deleting your stuff, why not set up separate accounts for them, and set access permissions on your folders so they can't get to them? You shouldn't be routinely running with admin privileges anyway, so set up lower privilege accounts for general use.

[watercooled]

I would also recommend Truecrypt, it is a great security application, has very little impact on HDD performance and costs nothing. It is very configurable but the defaults are fine. You should be able to find guides using Google but if you need any help just ask.

[chuckskull]

Going from what you're saying it might be worth coming at this from a different angle. Have you considered an external drive of some kind?

If it's just documents then a small thumbdrive might work well. Something like http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/4GB-C...rubber-housing Simply remove the drive when you don't need it. Kids cant get at the files job done. These thumb drives come in sizes of up to 64GB. Some offer password protection built in if you shop around.

If you need something larger then full blown external hard drives come in just about any size you need. Once again just unplug it when you're done. Files are safe.
http://www.scan.co.uk/Index.aspx?NT=....508.510.425-0

Otherwise I'd second peter's recommendation of truecrypt.

[how1]

He has said in his first post that the drive is external.

Truecrypt is a realy good program. Have a read up on it. Digest it. Should be what you are looking for.

[chuckskull]

He has said in his first post that the drive is external.

Truecrypt is a realy good program. Have a read up on it. Digest it. Should be what you are looking for.

I fail. A lot.

If he's really only worried about kids, then a locked draw will do. Otherwise truecrypt all the way.

[peterb]

I fail. A lot.

If he's really only worried about kids, then a locked draw will do. Otherwise truecrypt all the way.

Actually, on reflection, I'd agree with that. If you create a truecrypt volume (ie a container) there is nothing to stop you deleting that file. Encrypting the partition protects against that (but not against reformatting - but that is an admin function - so not giving the kids admin privileges is good protection) so if it protection against mounting the disk, then locking it away is the best solution of all - physical security is pretty good. Otherwise it comes down to setting access control permissions.