how to password protect a partition?

Discussion in 'Mac Basics and Help' started by fredtye, Jan 30, 2012.

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  1. fredtye, Jan 30, 2012

    fredtye macrumors newbie

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    May 1, 2011
    #1
    Hi, i've tried searching on forums and the internet regarding this, but i haven't found a solution to it. do hope you gurus would have a solution.

    I bought a 1TB hardrive, and i've partition it and my work requires me to use both mac and pc. Is there any way i can password protect one of the partitions so that it is accessible on both my windows and mac pcs?

    I know for mac you can create a disk image, but i don't think it is accessible on my windows computer. for windows, im aware there are 3rd party programs that would allow me to do so, but then again, it might not be able to run on my mac!

    as this is a pretty common thing most people require, im sure someone has already figured it out. please do help! thanks!
     
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  2. old-wiz, Jan 30, 2012

    old-wiz macrumors G3

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    West Suburban Boston Ma
    #2
    Never heard of a way to protect cross-platform. OSx has protected DMG, but as you say this is not part of Windows. I'm afraid you are out of luck.
     
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  3. nDarkness, Jan 30, 2012

    nDarkness macrumors newbie

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    #3
    True crypt will encrypt partitions, files and whole drives. You can even create hidden partitions. It is compatible with win, mac and linux. Now the real issue is how you format the partition. Hfs+ is the mac native format, ntfs is the windows format. This means that natively speaking, you can't share between the two except over a network. Fat32 will solve this problem but has file size limitations of 4gigs. If this isn't a problem for you, then it may be the best solution. If it is an issue then you will need 3rd party drivers to read the drive from the other os.

    Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Tapatalk
     
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  4. fredtye, Jan 30, 2012

    fredtye thread starter macrumors newbie

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    #4
    currently i formatted my external hdd to exfat, which allows up to 16 exabytes. so that wont be a problem. i will check out true crypt. thanks for your info!
     
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  5. fredtye, Jan 30, 2012

    fredtye thread starter macrumors newbie

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    #5
    i think i know what u mean... truecrypt only allows fat32?
     
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  6. nDarkness, Jan 30, 2012

    nDarkness macrumors newbie

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    #6
    No, what I mean is that if you want to read/write to the drive from the mac and windows, you will need a file system format that both can also read/write to.

    So, if you format the partition to hfs+ (osx's native file system) you will need software for windows that can read and write to this file system. One such software is made by a company called Paragon Software Group.

    With that said, truecrypt's faq states,

    Just follow the wizard and create your encrypted partition. It should ask if you want to share the drive or use it with your mac only. Choose which ever you like and after the wizard finishes, mount the encrypted partition (very important!) and change the format to exfat with Disk Utility.

    As a side note, exfat can only be read on macs that have OS 10.6.5 and later. It's probably not an issue for you, but be aware that older macs have no support for this format.
     
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