how how do you password protect files

[theposse]

How do i protect certain files on my computer for instance i have a folder i want to protect,i've heard of usin the disc utility and encryption but in laymans terms how do i do it step by step.
Thanks for any advice Scottie

[robbieduncan]

It is easiest to use File Vault to protect your entire home directory. Mac OSX does not allow you to protect a folder. The method you allude to is to create a read/write disk image which is password protected and mount it when you need to (and remember to unmount it if you are sharing a user account with someone else, which you should not be doing).

[musicpyrite]

You can password protect folders, but you have to use 3rd party applications. If you want to do that, check versiontracker.com (http://versiontracker.com/macosx)

1) To use Disk Utility, opent it up (located in Applications>Utilites>Disk Utility)
2) Look at the first picture, where I circled the New Image icon. Click on that
3) Select your size, you can make it 660 MB to fit a CD, or make it a custome size, like 1 GB (picture 2)
4) Select the option to Password protect it, by selecting AES-128 (picture 3)
5) look at your desktop, there should be two file that look like picture 4 (the one with the green circle)
6) Now drag all your file to the image (the one with the green circle).
7) Drag the image (with the green circle) to the trash


You now have successfully password protected your files.

*cough*porn*cough*

[jsw]

Just be sure to deselect the "Remember password (add to Keychain)" option when you're entering your password (in the "New Password" dialog), otherwise anyone who gets into your account can see your, er, sensitive files.

[goodwill]

*cough*porn*cough*

haha, thats classic. haha, wait, that just saved my life!

[musicpyrite]

haha, thats classic. haha, wait, that just saved my life!

Porn saved your life? Now I've seen everything... :rolleyes: :cool:

[goodwill]

after you create several "folders", how do you delete them so its not taking the size of the folder amount from your hard drive?

[musicpyrite]

after you create several "folders", how do you delete them so its not taking the size of the folder amount from your hard drive?

I'm not sure exactly what you mean but I'll try to tell you.
Make a new folder call it 'untitled folder.'
Put all your stuff into 'untitled folder.'
Drag 'unitiled folder' to the disk image.
After it's finished copying, drag 'untitled folder' to the trash and the disk image too.
All you have to do to see the files in the .dmg, is double click on it, it should then bring up the disk image, then you can read/write/remove what ever you want.

Think of a .dmg as CD.

[goodwill]

I'm not sure exactly what you mean but I'll try to tell you.
Make a new folder call it 'untitled folder.'
Put all your stuff into 'untitled folder.'
Drag 'unitiled folder' to the disk image.
After it's finished copying, drag 'untitled folder' to the trash and the disk image too.
All you have to do to see the files in the .dmg, is double click on it, it should then bring up the disk image, then you can read/write/remove what ever you want.

Think of a .dmg as CD.

What happend was, after I created the scenario and titled it "folder", I then decided to delete both the folder and the .dmg by dragging them to the trash and emptying it. However, I created a 4.7gb size "folder" and that amount is still subtracted from my original Hard Drive size of 55gb to now 51.3gb even after deleting both files/folders and restarting my computer.

[musicpyrite]

Well, if I'm thinking correctly, you need to drag the disk image to the trash and eject it before you can drag the .dmg.

Look at the first pic, I put the .dmg in the trash, with the disk image still mounted on the desktop. When I try to empty the trash it gives me that warning.

Look at the second pic, I'm dragging the disk image to the trash to eject it. Once the disk image is ejected, I drag the .dmg to the trash and empty the trash.

If that doesn't work, then something is wrong.