How do i protect an external hard drive?

Hi,
Been doing some research and can't figure out the best way to password protect/ encrypt an external hard drive. I know you can use disk utility in os x to create a disk image on the external drive but what if someone plugged the drive into a Windows computer? How does it handle the disk image? Could they access the files on it?
Also, if I had an external hard drive and wanted to partition it but have it protected using a disk image, could I make the entire thing a disk image and then partition the disk image and have everything be password protected? I want to create two partitions... one to clone my system and the other for file storage....is it possible to put these two on a password protected disk image?
So, any other ways to password protect/encrypt an external hard drive?
Thank you..

Instead of protecting the whole drive, it would be better to encrypt just a folder on that drive, therefore allowing windows PCs to place other stuff on the drive.
Try "Vault", a free application found here
http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/systemdiskutilities/vault.html

Similar Messages

  • Help- how to password protect an external hard drive?

    I'm just stuck. There must be a way to encrypt or password protect an external hard drive. No?

    The easiest way is to make an encrypted disk image of the folder contents with Disk Utility. Go to Disk Utility's File menu -> New -> Disk Image from Folder. There you can pick an encrypted disk image. Once you have made that image, delete the folder that it came from and leave the image behind. Mind you, there is always the risk you might lock yourself out permanently from that data if the image becomes corrupted. You are safer keeping the external hard disk in a physically safe place when not in use.

  • How to password protect an external hard drive

    I just bought an external HD to use with Time Machine and for some extra space, but I would really like to password protect it. Since it has all my files on it, it is just as important as password protecting my computer. I'm thinking I probably have to use Disk Utilities, but I'm not quite sure how to do it.
    Please be as detailed as possible, because I don't delve into Utilities very often.
    Thanks
    P.S. My HD is a Toshiba Portable Hard Drive, if it makes any difference. It advertises on the back that it can be password protected, but I have been unable of finding any way to do so.

    Hello FidgetingFinhc,
    The best protection for your data is to maintain the data as a encrypted disk image. Creating a "sparse image" will require a password to open:
    I would follow the instructions provided by the Apple Support document below on how to make this happen.
    http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1578
    Hope this helps.
    B-rock

  • I have a new MAcBook Air and my photos don't fit on the internal hard drive.  I want to store my photos on an external hard drive which I will connect to my Air when using Iphoto.  How do I set an external hard drive as the default drive?

    I have a new MAcBook Air and my photos don't fit on the internal hard drive.  I want to store my photos on an external hard drive which I will connect to my Air when using Iphoto.  How do I set an external hard drive as the default drive in Iphoto?

    Make sure the drive is formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
    1. Quit iPhoto
    2. Copy the iPhoto Library from your Pictures Folder to the External Disk.
    3. Hold down the option (or alt) key while launching iPhoto. From the resulting menu select 'Choose Library' and navigate to the new location. From that point on this will be the default location of your library.
    4. Test the library and when you're sure all is well, trash the one on your internal HD to free up space.
    Regards
    TD

  • How do i use an external hard drive for all my itunes music?

    how do i use an external hard drive for all my itunes music?

    Hi valleydave,
    Here are two good links for you to check out:
    http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1751
    http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1449
    The first one goes over, in-depth, what you're looking for in regards to "off site" iTunes.

  • How can I use my external hard drive for my iphoto instead of my mac book pro memory?

    i don't know if this question has been asked before: how can I use my external hard drive for my iphoto instead of my mac book pro memory? just like itunes all my song are save on my external hard drive. make sense?

    Moving the iPhoto library is safe and simple - quit iPhoto and drag the iPhoto library intact as a single entity to the external drive - depress the option key and launch iPhoto using the "select library" option to point to the new location on the external drive - fully test it and then trash the old library on the internal drive (test one more time prior to emptying the trash)
    And be sure that the External drive is formatted Mac OS extended (journaled) (iPhoto does not work with drives with other formats) and that it is always available prior to launching iPhoto
    And backup soon and often - having your iPhoto library on an external drive is not a backup and if you are using Time Machine you need to check and be sure that TM is backing up your external drive
    LN

  • How do i format an external hard drive for use on both windows and mac book air?

    how do i format an external hard drive for use on both windows pc and mac book air?

    Use exFAT on the PC.
    (71374)

  • Airport Extreme won't show the WD external hard drive I plugged into the USB port.  How do I connect my external hard drive to my network?

    I plugged in my WD external hard drive into my Airport Extreme via the USB port.  The hard drive will not show up in the disk section in the airport utility... How do I hook an external hard drive up to the airport extreme?  I have tried 2 different WD hard drives.  I must be missing something!!!
    Thanks!

    To be recognized by the AirPort for sharing, the WD HDD has to be formatted in either HFS+ (ideal) or FAT32. The easiest way to format the HDD is to use the Disk Utility in OS X.

  • How do you dump a external hard drive from PC to mac

    How do i dump my external hard drive from a PC to my Mac

    If you don't see the external HD when you connect it to the Mac, then you need to use Disk Utility to format the XHD to a FAT32 drive. Once done it will read on the Mac and PC without any problems.

  • How can I backup an external hard drive using Time Machine?

    How can I backup an external hard drive connected to my MacBook Pro using Time Machine?

    Attach drive, open Time Machine preferences, be sure external drive is not in the Exclude list.

  • HT201250 How do you add an external Hard drive to time machine and share on network?

    How do you add an external Hard drive to time capsule and share it on local network?
    Lee

    Ensure it's formatted as Mac OS Extended, FAT16, or FAT32, connect it to a self-powered hub, and plug it into the Time Capsule's USB port. If the drive is Ethernet and not USB, ignore everything else and just plug it in.
    (71787)

  • How do I reformat my External Hard Drive (Seagate Backup Plus).

    Hello everyone. How do I reformat my External Hard Drive (Seagate Backup Plus Portable Device). I accidentally clicked to use it with Time Machine and my hard drive is of little use now. When I open my hard drive, it just shows 'backup', the same thing when I open it with Windows. Thinking of reformatting it back to be used to Mac and Windows. And not use it again with Time Machine. New to Apple, appreciate the help

    Hello,
    "Thinking of reformatting it back to be used to Mac and Windows. And not use it again with Time Machine"
    If you want to format the External drive as universally compatible, your best bet is to format it as exFAT. Note that reformatting the drive erases all contents of the drive.
    1) Open Disk Utility located in /Applications/Utilities/ (or simply type it in spotlight and the application will show up)
    2) Select the external Hard drive
    3) Click the 'erase' tab.
    4) Under format: select exFAT
    5) Click "Erase" in the lower right hand corner to reformat the drive.

  • HT2426 how do i access my external hard drive connected to my time capsule 4th gen

    how do i acess my external hard drive (wd) that is connected to my time capsule using a macbook pro?

    Make sure that the drive has been formatted correctly to work with the Time Capsule.
    That means a format of Mac OS Extended (Journaled)....highly recommended.....or FAT32.
    Once this is checked, open Macintosh HD > Applications > Utilities > AirPort Utility
    Click on the Time Capsule icon, then click Edit
    Click the Disks tab at the top of the screen
    If the USB port on the Time Capsule can supply enough power to the hard drive, you will see the name of the drive displayed in the window, per the example below:
    If you have the correct format on the drive, and it does not appear, this is an indication that the USB port on the Time Capsule  (which is under powered), does not have enough power to work with your hard drive.......even if the hard drive has its own power supply.
    In this case, you will need to use a powered USB hub with the Time Capsule to provide enough current for the hard drive.
    Now you should be able to access the drive using the Finder to mount it on the desktop.

  • How can i format my external hard drive to write files from Mac without loosing the files that i alredy have on my external hard when i used it with windows?

    How can i format my external hard drive to write files from Mac without loosing the files that i alredy have on my external hard when i used it with windows?
    I have been using Windows to write files to my 1TB WD external hard drive and I do not want to format to loose the files capacity of around 500GB
    Someone, Please help

    Hi Allen,
    Is there any way to store the back up to Mac and restore after formating?

  • My external hard drive will not open and only shows up in Disk Utilities. When I try yo repair it, it give me and error of invalid sibling link. How do I fix my external hard drive?

    My external hard drive will not open and only shows up in Disk Utilities. When I try yo repair it, it give me and error of invalid sibling link. How do I fix my external hard drive?

    Invalid sibling link may not be fixable by Disk Utility. (Disk Utility is very conservative, and will not attempt repairs that might cause you to lose data.)
    It is an indication of serious Directory damage.
    that leaves
    a) third-party Utilities that will take those risks, or
    b) re-initializing the drive (which deletes all your data) and restoring from another backup source.
    c) "Copying off whatever files you can salvage" has gone by, and you cannot copy anything off a drive that will not mount. You may be able to use "rescue" programs such as prosoft engineering Data Rescue to copy files to another drive, but that sounds a lot better than its reality. You may get many files, but not get ANY filenames.

Maybe you are looking for