USB HD Security (OSX)
 

MacOSX 10.4.11, Universal Binary (Intel)

I have an external 80gb usb hard drive I want to secure. I'm not sure which is better or even what my options are, and Im currently too lazy to google. Hardware security or software security is fine, seeking all options. A nice, secure password option upon startup would be nice, but what program does that? I was thinking about an encrypted, password protected disk image, but I didnt want to wait for it to mount every single time.

Any help appreciated. Thank you.

Another vote for TrueCrypt...it's an awesome little app.

I just tripped across this tip... macosxhints.com - How to create a fully-encrypted HFS+ hard drive. It uses TrueCrypt, but requires some tricky bits as well. I don't know if it matches up with your needs, but I figured just in case...

I've been fiddling around with TrueCrypt, but I couldn't get it to work as I wanted (password protected/password entry when mounting disk). Specifically, I was getting a "resource busy" error when I tried to mount the entire device (a test 1g usb flash drive) in TrueCrypt. I was able to create a TrueCrypt encrypted partition on the drive, but I found it a clunky solution having to fire up TrueCrypt everytime just to mount the partition, when DiskImage .dmg files do the same thing, and much simpler. I thought that link was going to work redlemon, great find, but I had no luck, could just be me. I'll keep trying/looking around. Thanks all.

Thanks Augi! I'm checking this out now!!

@ Mikec:
Don't mention it.


@ Powerclown:
Now that that is out of the way. I've been giving some thoughts to what you mentioned. This resource busy nonsense: try closing other programs. While in Windows I have noticed that my idle system processes would jump from ~5% to ~35%, with little to no noticeable consequences with my other programs running, and I used to do a lot of video editing to and from an encrypted partition.... What you aren't that paranoid? Anyway, instead of creating a full partition, what happened if you just created a file that took up the full space of the partition? Is this within you means?

Windows: where you shut down your computer with the START button. :orly:

And because I use both systems:

Q: How many Apple engineers does it take to screw in a lightbulb?
A: One. They just hold the bulb in place and the world revolves around them.


Anyway yes, I did go the encrypted file on the drive route. I just find it silly and inconvenient that one has to fire up TrueCrypt every single time just to get access to the file. Which means that one needs a copy of TrueCrypt with them wherever they go to be able to access the file. I prefer the native OSX support for .dmg files, just double click. Odd how this aspect of Mac computer security is so devoid of good apps, although I've found Crypt to be very good for encrypting files and folders, just not whole drives.

What I have done is partition my larger drives such that a small partition contains TrueCrypt on it, with the remainder of the drive being totally encrypted. Is this possible for you?

Also, I keep a flash drive that contains my secure apps, like TrueCrypt or KeePass Password Safe. If I lose the stick, it is fine since I have it backed up to... an encrypted file.