How to password protect part of external drive?

[PicnicTutorials]

I followed this guys tut which basically encrypts a piece of your drive. I am trying this on a external and it keeps giving me a error when creating it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Kd3eXm_DDA&list=WL23CA8A66C58A5123

Here is that same tut in text form - basically just creates a image on the disk. http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1578

Can I use true crypt on a external drive?

Or the method linked above?

I see using disk utility i can encrypt the drive. Can i do that without erasing the entire thing? I just filled it up i don't want to erase it all to partition it again.

 

[MatsSkoe]

Use a encrypted file container made by TrueCrypt, easiest way.

Make sure you external hard disk is formatted Mac OS extended or ExFAT (if you also want to use it in Windows computers) to be able to make the large file on your hard disk.

Good luck!

 

[PicnicTutorials]

Use a encrypted file container made by TrueCrypt, easiest way.

Make sure you external hard disk is formatted Mac OS extended or ExFAT (if you also want to use it in Windows computers) to be able to make the large file on your hard disk.

Good luck!

Can i use true crypt on the drive without having to delete everything on there first? Its already formatted mac journaled.

 

[MatsSkoe]

You don't have to erase anything. If you use the encrypted file container wizard it just adds a file on your external hard disk, e.g. Encrypted_Files.secret. Afterwards you use TrueCrypt to mount that file as an extra Volume (seen as another hard disk).

 

[mfram]

You don't even need TrueCrypt to do it. The Mac Disk Utility can created an encrypted disk image as well. The support is built into Mac OS.

 

[Weaselboy]

Just attach the disk and right click on it in Finder then select "Encrypt". You will be asked to select a password and it will encrypt the partition without destroying the data. See this.

If you don't want to encrypt the whole drive just add a second partition and leave that unencrypted and just encrypt the first partition.

 

[PicnicTutorials]

You don't even need TrueCrypt to do it. The Mac Disk Utility can created an encrypted disk image as well. The support is built into Mac OS.

Ya I tried that but it kept throwing an error for some reason. I used true crypt for now and it seems to work well. It seems to basically do the exact same thing the disk utility would do if it worked for me. Maybe it doesn't work on external drive?

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Just attach the disk and right click on it in Finder then select "Encrypt". You will be asked to select a password and it will encrypt the partition without destroying the data. See this.

If you don't want to encrypt the whole drive just add a second partition and leave that unencrypted and just encrypt the first partition.

I will try this. Good to know how. So as is now the drive is not partitioned - just one 2G drive. Do I need to partition it in order to encrypt a small portion of it? I just need 50G encrypted folder. I don't know why I couldn't create a disk image with the disk utility. Pretty sure I was doing it correctly.

 

[barkmonster]

Open disk utility

1) File -> New -> Blank Disk Image

2) Choose an option of either 128 or 256bit encryption from the drop down menu.

3) Give it an appropriate name (like NOpronhere.sparseimage or definitelyNOTpron.sparseimage), set the size to something realistic for it's usage and leave everything else at the default settings.

(apologies for my sense of humour by the way, I couldn't resist).

 

[PicnicTutorials]

Open disk utility

1) File -> New -> Blank Disk Image

2) Choose an option of either 128 or 256bit encryption from the drop down menu.

3) Give it an appropriate name (like NOpronhere.sparseimage or definitelyNOTpron.sparseimage), set the size to something realistic for it's usage and leave everything else at the default settings.

(apologies for my sense of humour by the way, I couldn't resist).

I know it's not brain surgery very simple right. But didn't work for me. I will try again in the morning. If it doesn't work again I will report back the error I was receiving - don't remember ATM.

 

[satcomer]

Maybe you could look at the shareware application Espionage to satisfy your needs.

 

[PicnicTutorials]

Open disk utility

1) File -> New -> Blank Disk Image

2) Choose an option of either 128 or 256bit encryption from the drop down menu.

3) Give it an appropriate name (like NOpronhere.sparseimage or definitelyNOTpron.sparseimage), set the size to something realistic for it's usage and leave everything else at the default settings.

(apologies for my sense of humour by the way, I couldn't resist).

That method worked perfect thank you! I obviously was going about it in the wrong way. I just deleted true crypt now that I know how to use the systems built in encryption method.

 

[Weaselboy]

I will try this. Good to know how. So as is now the drive is not partitioned - just one 2G drive. Do I need to partition it in order to encrypt a small portion of it? I just need 50G encrypted folder. I don't know why I couldn't create a disk image with the disk utility. Pretty sure I was doing it correctly.

Yes, you would need to shrink down the first partition to the 50GB you want then just encrypt that partition. Then you could add a second partition to fill the rest of the disk however you want.

 

[PicnicTutorials]

Yes, you would need to shrink down the first partition to the 50GB you want then just encrypt that partition. Then you could add a second partition to fill the rest of the disk however you want.

That's a 2TB drive I got not G. To confirm though... the way I successfully did it above I don't need to partition first correct? I assume as it seemed to work correctly without partitioning first.

 

[Weaselboy]

That's a 2TB drive I got not G. To confirm though... the way I successfully did it above I don't need to partition first correct? I assume as it seemed to work correctly without partitioning first.

You are fine. There is no need to partition using the encrypted sparse bundle method like you are.