encryption of single folder

[tetramed]

hi, i am your average OSX user and i have a question regarding encription of certain dokuments.. like bank-acount data, a list of usernames and passwords and thelike.

I am using a macbook and many people do have and should have access to it, so I dont want to have a password-protection for every time it wakes up or every startup, but the ability to password-protect and encrypt certain sensible dokuments.

I tried filevault, but it doesent work for me, because it requires my administrator-password at startup so:

- people who dont know my password cant use my macbook alltogether

- because many people know my password and it is a really simple on, this isnt safe the way i d`like it to be

so, i am looking for a way to password-protect single folders or files with a password, that has nothing to do with my administrator-password and that cant`be overruled with knowledge of administrator-password..

any help would be greatly apreciatet, and please excuse my meager english thanks in advance

 

[TBi]

Use a disk image.

 

[mkrishnan]

I'll give you two options... I recommend the first, but you might end up liking the second.

1) The *RIGHT* way to set up your computer overall is to have an administrator password no one else knows, turn on requiring a password on wake from screensaver, etc, create a guest account (perhaps with no password and the "simple finder" that limits the apps that can be used), and then enable fast user switching.

Then, when you wake up the computer, you put in your password. When someone else wakes up the computer, they click on the switch user button, and login as the guest. You stay logged in in the background. They need neither your password nor access to your files.

2) If you want even more protection and/or don't want to do this for whatever reason, the second option is to create a sparse disk image:

Open Disk Utility (in your utilities folder) and click New Image
In the dialog, give it a name, select a LARGE size (that you will not overfill... perhaps 4 or 8 GB), select AES-128 under encryption, select sparse disk image from the format box. This disk image will not be 8GB in size -- it will grow as you add files to it (and so you want to make the disk image size very large so it does not over fill). You will be prompted for a password for the image. Just make sure you do not save the password to the keychain.

The password is now unique to the image and cannot be unlocked using an admin password or anything else. When you double click the image, you type in the password, and then it mounts as if it were an additional drive. You then just save to that "drive," and eject it when you are done with it.

 

[gavd]

As TBi said you can use a disk image to store your sensitive documents. Go into Disk Utility and create a new image. It will give you options for encryption (the default is none).

 

[crees!]

Why not just create a guest account and use a shared folder for documents that someone else might need?

Edit: And change your password.

 

[Jacquesmc12]

I'll give you two options... I recommend the first, but you might end up liking the second.

1) The *RIGHT* way to set up your computer overall is to have an administrator password no one else knows, turn on requiring a password on wake from screensaver, etc, create a guest account (perhaps with no password and the "simple finder" that limits the apps that can be used), and then enable fast user switching.

Then, when you wake up the computer, you put in your password. When someone else wakes up the computer, they click on the switch user button, and login as the guest. You stay logged in in the background. They need neither your password nor access to your files.

2) If you want even more protection and/or don't want to do this for whatever reason, the second option is to create a sparse disk image:

Open Disk Utility (in your utilities folder) and click New Image
In the dialog, give it a name, select a LARGE size (that you will not overfill... perhaps 4 or 8 GB), select AES-128 under encryption, select sparse disk image from the format box. This disk image will not be 8GB in size -- it will grow as you add files to it (and so you want to make the disk image size very large so it does not over fill). You will be prompted for a password for the image. Just make sure you do not save the password to the keychain.

The password is now unique to the image and cannot be unlocked using an admin password or anything else. When you double click the image, you type in the password, and then it mounts as if it were an additional drive. You then just save to that "drive," and eject it when you are done with it.

when creating the new image and selecting the 8gb option, should I use Hard Disk or cd/DVD, or something else like single parition
help
Thanks