Encrypting an external hard drive?

[lsquare]

I'm totally new to MacOS so I need your help. I just bought a brand new WD easystore 18TB USB 3.0 Desktop External Hard Drive.

https://www.westerndigital.com/en-ca/products/portable-drives/wd-easystore-desktop-usb-3-0-hdd?sku=WDBAMA0180HBK-NESN

I haven't opened it yet. I'm being advised that after opening it and connecting it to the M1 MacBook Air, I should immediately format it as a HFS+ drive. How do I do that?

I'm also being told that I should encrypt the entire drive should I decide to sell the drive in the future. How do I do that? My understanding is that I'll need to set up a password if I decide to encrypt the entire drive. Once I do that, then in the future when I plug and replug the external hard drive, I'm assuming I'll have to enter the password to gain access to the external drive?

 

[Turnpike]

I've been using Macs and iPhones since Windows 7. I'm typing on an iMac 12+ hours a day to an UNencrypted disc, just because I always had issues when I tried to do this encrypted, I could never log back in again.

I'm sure I'm not the only one, so in case it's well explained, I'm also following this thread.

 

[Nermal]

The first thing I'd ask is whether you're going to use the drive for anything "top secret". The vast majority of second-hand buyers are just going to reformat a drive and use it, not go to great lengths to try to recover any deleted files. In almost all cases, simply formatting the drive before sale is sufficient.

 

[lsquare]

The first thing I'd ask is whether you're going to use the drive for anything "top secret". The vast majority of second-hand buyers are just going to reformat a drive and use it, not go to great lengths to try to recover any deleted files. In almost all cases, simply formatting the drive before sale is sufficient.

It's not government secrets. Having said that, these are important files that I don't want anyone to get a hold of.

 

[Mike Boreham]

I'm totally new to MacOS so I need your help. I just bought a brand new WD easystore 18TB USB 3.0 Desktop External Hard Drive.

https://www.westerndigital.com/en-ca/products/portable-drives/wd-easystore-desktop-usb-3-0-hdd?sku=WDBAMA0180HBK-NESN

I haven't opened it yet. I'm being advised that after opening it and connecting it to the M1 MacBook Air, I should immediately format it as a HFS+ drive. How do I do that?

I'm also being told that I should encrypt the entire drive should I decide to sell the drive in the future. How do I do that? My understanding is that I'll need to set up a password if I decide to encrypt the entire drive. Once I do that, then in the future when I plug and replug the external hard drive, I'm assuming I'll have to enter the password to gain access to the external drive?

Connect it to your Mac. You may be told to initialise it which will open Disk Utility for you. If not, open Disk Utility anyway, and select your drive from the sidebar. Select the Erase tab and choose “HFS+ encrypted” (might be “MacOS extended encrypted”, same thing) from the dropdown. It will ask you for password. Follow the prompts.
I have always encrypted my drives, internal and external. It is sometimes creates an extra step to unlock but I have never got into a problem because of encryption.

 

[lsquare]

Connect it to your Mac. You may be told to initialise it which will open Disk Utility for you. If not, open Disk Utility anyway, and select your drive from the sidebar. Select the Erase tab and choose “HFS+ encrypted” (might be “MacOS extended encrypted”, same thing) from the dropdown. It will ask you for password. Follow the prompts.
I have always encrypted my drives, internal and external. It is sometimes creates an extra step to unlock but I have never got into a problem because of encryption.

I'm guessing the WD or any retail hard drive is likely to be formatted as exFAT out of the box for cross cross-compatibility and Macs?

I can't remember where, but my research also suggests that I should go with APFS encryption even though I'm using an HDD. What do you think?

Since you have experience with this, I'm wondering in which situation where I'll have to re-enter the password? Like shutdown or restart my Mac and having to access the external hard drive? What if I don't restart or shut down the Mac? Then as long as it's connected, it won't ask for a password?

How secure is HFS+ encryption compared to Windows' Bitlocker? Is it secured enough for business use?

I have never encrypted a hard drive before. I don't know if the encryption is done via hardware or software. The HDD is 18TB. How long will it take to secure the entire drive?

 

[Mike Boreham]

I'm guessing the WD or any retail hard drive is likely to be formatted as exFAT out of the box for cross cross-compatibility and Macs?

Quite likely.

I can't remember where, but my research also suggests that I should go with APFS encryption even though I'm using an HDD. What do you think?

Either is OK but many people say HFS+ for HDD. However Apple force APFS for any drive being used by Time Machine, including HDDs, so they must believe it is OK. Carbon Copy Cloner makers now recommend APFS for HDDs. APFS is the modern system with advantages, especially variable size volumes, which makes partitioning easy. I would probably go with APFS.

Since you have experience with this, I'm wondering in which situation where I'll have to re-enter the password? Like shutdown or restart my Mac and having to access the external hard drive? What if I don't restart or shut down the Mac? Then as long as it's connected, it won't ask for a password?

When you first connect the drive to s a different computer you will be asked for the password. Backup apps will ask for the password when first setting up.

How secure is HFS+ encryption compared to Windows' Bitlocker? Is it secured enough for business use?

No idea!

I have never encrypted a hard drive before. I don't know if the encryption is done via hardware or software. The HDD is 18TB. How long will it take to secure the entire drive?

Disk Utility encryption is software encryption. If you format the drive encrypted before putting data on it, encryption is instant. If you encrypt an already loaded drive (which you can from Finder) it will take days.

 

[Fishrrman]

My advice is to NOT encrypt the drive.
If the data on it is that sensitive, lock it up or keep it hidden.

If you encrypt the drive, you may have a "moment of extreme need" where you find that the encryption (for whatever reason) is keeping YOU from accessing the drive...

 

[Mike Boreham]

Good advice for anyone who is a bit of a technophobe or has problems managing and remembering passwords.

Also depends on lifestyle (work v home, travel much or not) and attitude to risk, which are personal issues.