external HDD privacy?

[magichat]

if you have a bootable external HDD (or any external HDD that had all the programs you need), and you were using it to work on, would there be any way to tell on the main HDD that an external HDD was used or traces of what programs were used or documents/files were opened on the main HDD?

1st post!! proud new mac owner!

 

[Mechcozmo]

if you have a bootable external HDD (or any external HDD that had all the programs you need), and you were using it to work on, would there be any way to tell on the main HDD that an external HDD was used or traces of what programs were used or documents/files were opened on the main HDD?

1st post!! proud new mac owner!

Modification dates on files would be changed. An experienced person could take care of that, however.

Are you worried about somebody starting your Mac off of an external hard drive?

 

[magichat]

Modification dates on files would be changed. An experienced person could take care of that, however.

Are you worried about somebody starting your Mac off of an external hard drive?

thanks for the quick reply.

no, the opposite. my job uses a lot of sensitive info and i don't want to use my external on another computer and leave data on that computer, including sensitive personal info, passwords, etc. so if i use the external for all my work (saved files, etc), will the info still show on the computer's main HDD?

 

[Mechcozmo]

thanks for the quick reply.

no, the opposite. my job uses a lot of sensitive info and i don't want to use my external on another computer and leave data on that computer, including sensitive personal info, passwords, etc. so if i use the external for all my work (saved files, etc), will the info still show on the computer's main HDD?

No. But there is a way of encrypting data on OS X, and depending on how much "sensitive info" you've got, it might be easiest to just go that route.