I need the unconfusing way to put a password on a external hard drive, please

it seems the more i look the more confusing things got. basically i have a new hard drive ( g drive mobile usb ) i want to put a password on to it so that if you do not know the password you will not be able to access ANYTHING. it seems like there is either a tutorial on how to put a password on to a 'folder' & when it comes to a 'harddrive' the term 'password' is now 'encrypted' & it just seems like there is a difference in the explanation. also people seem to say "thumb drive" a lot & i know that i am not talking about a thumb drive, i am using a hard drive, maybe it is all the same but nobody is saying so & i don't want to find out that a password on a folder or a thumb drive is totally different when it comes to using a hard drive.
so, how do i put a password onto a hard drive so that when i plug in the usb cable you will next have to type in the password to see anything on the hard drive??
just updated to mavericks by the way

If you want to protect everything on the drive, then you need to encrypt the drive.
Don't store the password in your keychain as that will automatically decrypt the drive when it is connected.
Here is an article written for mountain lion, but I think it is the same for mavericks.
http://m.imore.com/how-easily-encrypt-external-drives-os-x-mountain-lion
Another here: http://osxdaily.com/2012/09/17/how-to-encrypt-an-external-drive-quickly-in-mac-o s-x/
I'm not sure if it is stated directly, but the drive must be partitioned as a GUID partition table.
If just want to encrypt some of the data, http://osxdaily.com/2012/01/11/password-protect-files-folders-in-mac-os-x/

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