How to password protect folders? (2 Viewers)

[Beanstalk]

I want to lend my external hard drive to a mate so that he can copy some music and movies on it, but I also have some personal documents on it that I don't want to leave accessible. Is there any way that I can password protect some selected folders?

I could make the folder hidden, but a lot of folk have got their Windows Explorer set to view hidden files anyway so its not the most reliable way of preventing access.

Any idears?

 

[THRILLHO]

I want to lend my external hard drive to a mate so that he can copy some music and movies on it, but I also have some personal documents on it that I don't want to leave accessible. Is there any way that I can password protect some selected folders?

I could make the folder hidden, but a lot of folk have got their Windows Explorer set to view hidden files anyway so its not the most reliable way of preventing access.

Any idears?

Simplest, least secure way:
Zip up the confidential folders, put a password on the zip file. Makes it a bit of a pain to actually use the folders as folders though... having to unzip and rezip every time you want to add something new to it is a huge pain the hole.

More difficult, more secure way:
Download TrueCrypt - that shit is awesome. Might be a little daunting when you first get started though.

 

[pete]

Simplest, least secure way:
Zip up the confidential folders, put a password on the zip file. Makes it a bit of a pain to actually use the folders as folders though... having to unzip and rezip every time you want to add something new to it is a huge pain the hole.

More difficult, more secure way:
Download TrueCrypt - that shit is awesome. Might be a little daunting when you first get started though.

i second truecrypt - it's not that hard

if your external drive is portable, it should be encrypted. same goes for USB keys.

 

[Theseus Mock]

just delete the porn.

 

[Beanstalk]

Download TrueCrypt - that shit is awesome.

I'll give it a go...it says its only compatible with Windows XP/2000/2003 and Linux so I hope if I encrypt it using XP, I can still access it using OSX too...or vice versa...sure I'll try it anyway.

 

[pete]

I'll give it a go...it says its only compatible with Windows XP/2000/2003 and Linux so I hope if I encrypt it using XP, I can still access it using OSX too...or vice versa...sure I'll try it anyway.

if it's not compatible there's bound to be something else that is

 

[pete]

The following features are planned to be implemented in future versions:

• Full support for 32-bit and 64-bit Windows Vista
  
  
• Mac OS X version
  
  
• Support for external authentication modules (cryptographic tokens)
  
  
• Parallelized/pipelined read/write
  
  
• GUI for Linux versions of TrueCrypt
  
  
• 'Raw' CD/DVD volumes
  
  
• TrueCrypt API

and more.

oh well

 

[Beanstalk]

Thats OK I can wait!

I'll just zip up the personal stuff for now.

 

[mr pharmacist!!!!1]

dont delete the porn.

 

[Beanstalk]

Confirmation:
The porn will not be deleted, but will be encrypted.





The password will be "bigwillies"...ssshh...don't tell nobody.

 

[dudley]

why don;t you just take the personal stuff off the drive when you lend it out?

 

[quaidox]

if the drive is formatted using ntfs, right click the folder --> properties --> advanced --> encrypt contents to secure data

 

[ITalkShite]

Just come clean and admit that you informed on people to the Securitate.

 

[pete]

if the drive is formatted using ntfs, right click the folder --> properties --> advanced --> encrypt contents to secure data

won't NTFS screw up Mac compatibility? i know nothing of Mac stuff

 

[Beanstalk]

won't NTFS screw up Mac compatibility? i know nothing of Mac stuff

Maybe its not NTFS so...might be FAT32 formatted...can't remember...reads and writes to both mac and windows anyhoo.

 

[Beanstalk]

why don;t you just take the personal stuff off the drive when you lend it out?

It'd be easier to just stick a password on it, so I wouldn't have to keep deleting it and then copying it back afterwards.