Password Protect folders w/o encryption program?

[Necrosaro420]

Im using Windows 7, and looking for a way to password protect a slave drive w/o encrypting it. I format several times per year and dont want to take a chance at losing all my information. Is there a program that will run in the background that will password protect a drive/folders w/o encrypting them? Thanks

 

[stlcardinals]

Does anybody else know your windows user account password?

Don't share your password, make a limited user account for anybody else wanting to use your computer.

On the folders you want to "protect", right click and select properties, go to the security tab and add a deny read permission for any other user account.

 

[Modelworks]

Since you don't want to encrypt the entire drive the other way is VHD. VHD are virtual hard disk that are mountable in windows. They are really just a set of data that is mapped to a single file and can be just as fast as a regular drive since they write and read in the same way.

Download truecrypt.
http://www.truecrypt.org/

Instead of encrypting the entire drive pick the create encrypted file container, option. That creates a vhd that will look and work like a regular drive and use space off the hard drive you select. You can then copy or move that single file and have it contain the drive. It doesn't depend on user accounts of versions of windows and if the main drives mbr or file system corrupts all you need to do is recover that vhd file you made.

 

[homercles337]

Since you don't want to encrypt the entire drive the other way is VHD. VHD are virtual hard disk that are mountable in windows. They are really just a set of data that is mapped to a single file and can be just as fast as a regular drive since they write and read in the same way.

Download truecrypt.
http://www.truecrypt.org/

I was going to suggest the same. I use truecrypt to encrypt entire drives and, as Modelworks suggests, to do virtual encrypted drives. Mounting these virtual drives has no discernible hit in performance with IO. Password protecting is nonsense unless its encrypted. If you want password protection just use 7z/winzip/or something.

 

[Necrosaro420]

Just kinda affriad to encrypt the drive, because dont if you format your OS, and forget to unencrypt the slave drive, isnt all the info lost on it because you will have to format that drive to use it again?

 

[GeekDrew]

Just kinda affriad to encrypt the drive, because dont if you format your OS, and forget to unencrypt the slave drive, isnt all the info lost on it because you will have to format that drive to use it again?

Not if you use TrueCrypt or some encryption program that either uses password entry for decryption or allows you to store the keys on a third volume.