How to password protect a portable hard drive?

[Kroze]

Does anyone know? I have a USB portable hard drive that I want to protect in case I lose it.

I want the program to request a password upon you plugging the USB hard drive onto the computer before you can access any files.

If multiple attempts are wrong, it will start deleting all of the files or lock it up from usage for several hours/days.

 

[FishAk]

TrueCrypt is good, and free, but I don't think it will delete files, or prompt you for a code just from plugging in the drive. It's not possible to tell if any files even exist unless the correct code is entered, if it's set up right.

 

[bigi]

+1 for TrueCrypt. Learn how to use it especially when encrypting entire HDD.

 

[Voo]

Yep TrueCrypt and absolutely no reason to delete the files, as long as the attacker doesn't know the password he won't get the data - the wonders of AES. And considering that no attack I know of against TrueCrypt works against USB sticks that should be perfectly save.

Just don't forget to put TrueCrypt ALSO onto the drive (in an unencrypted part *cough*) if you want to use it on other PCs - and I'd write a small autorun.inf (or the equivalents in other OSes) for comfort

 

[ch33zw1z]

YAVFT (yet another vote for truecrypt 🙂 ) Do yourself a favor and RTFM, it is very helpful for this product. I used this on my portable HDD's that I do not want anyone accessing, mostly for traveling...you never know when someone wants to know what you gots!

 

[lmccrary]

I agree with most of these guys, True Crypt is awesome. I use it on my back up external hard drives and usb flash drives. I really like using it on usb flash drives. If I lose it, I don't have to worry about some one getting access to the data.

 

[Kroze]

So unless I have truecrypt install on the pc, i can't open or access the file at all? seemed kind of cumber sum isn't it?

 

[ch33zw1z]

It doesn't have to be installed, you can run it standalone. You can also create an encrypted file. You can leave a small portion of the portable drive UN-encrypted, and put TrueCrypt executables on there, and encrypt the rest of the drive.

 

[Voo]

So unless I have truecrypt install on the pc, i can't open or access the file at all? seemed kind of cumber sum isn't it?

I'll just quote myself from 3 posts above:

Just don't forget to put TrueCrypt ALSO onto the drive (in an unencrypted part *cough*) if you want to use it on other PCs - and I'd write a small autorun.inf (or the equivalents in other OSes) for comfort

Just put TrueCrypt on an unencrypted partition and create a autorun.inf that starts it. That way it'll ask for a pw everytime you insert the USB stick - works perfectly fine and does exactly what you want..

 

[Emulex]

many hard drive have FDE (toshiba) - its done in the drive. the PHY shouldn't matter

 

[Mark R]

Just put TrueCrypt on an unencrypted partition and create a autorun.inf that starts it. That way it'll ask for a pw everytime you insert the USB stick - works perfectly fine and does exactly what you want..

You're right that truecrypt doesn't need installation. However, it does need admin access if not installed, so this type of 'portable' encrypted drive can't be used on work computers (of other PCs where you don 't have the admin password.

 

[Nizbot]

...create a autorun.inf that starts it. That way it'll ask for a pw everytime you insert the USB stick - works perfectly fine and does exactly what you want..

I have been trying to find the right way to format the .inf but it doesn't seem to work. What are you putting in the autorun file?

Edit: Nevermind. Figured out you had to add the encrypted volume to the "favorites" and then select "Mount selected volume when its host device gets connected." Then just create a simple autorun.inf --

[autorun]
open=truecrypt.exe

I knew it should be that simple!

Edit 2: Ok. Maybe not that simple. It seems TC was still running down in the tray when I reconnected my usb the last time, so that's why it automatically prompted for the password to mount. How do I load TC automatically when I plug it in, if it's not already running in windows?