How to Password Protect an External Hard Drive

With the rise in popularity of external hard drives comes the question of their security. A user will need some type of protection to use these external hard drives with any sensitive files. That is why a person needs to password protect any external hard drive she uses.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

1. Decide if you want to pay for a software package to provide this security on the external hard drive. There are free software downloads and pay downloads. The pay versions may offer more security but if money is tight, you may want to choose the free version.

2. Connect the external hard drive to your computer.

3. Download the password protection software to the external hard drive. Follow the onscreen instructions to install the software. See the resources section for more information.

4. Choose a password to protect the external hard drive. You want to choose a password that is easy to remember but not so common that others will guess the password and gain access to the external hard drive.

5. Follow the user instructions of the downloaded software to password protect the external hard drive.

6. Test the external hard drive security by connecting the drive to another computer and try to access the drive. If successful, it will ask you for the password established in Step 4.

[darkeden]

on 8/22/2009 Thank you for info but agree with Tuborg. You should have put forward a software reco.

If anyone were to ask this question, most likely they intend to also know what software is good and available.

If anyone else have other software reco, please do not hesitate to post. I want to know. Thank You!

[Tuborg]

on 10/28/2008 You should have recommended some software programs to protect external hard drives. For example, TrueCrypt (open source) and Portable Folder Password Expert USB (shareware).
http://www.truecrypt.org
http://www.folder-password-expert.com/usb.html