USB Password

[Berne]

Hi,
Any free utility proved worthwhile to password protect a USB thumb drive...one which you can use on any computer, then enter the password and access your files?

Lastly, ever get that virus: www.going on earth ( one word ), its a pain, redirects all google searches to useless links. I been reading but all tweaks seem useless, and some reports Ive read say ' Do yourself a favour and do a full re-install? Any thoughts?

Berne

 

[Binky]

Look at Truecrypt and FreeOTFE.

Both can do this. You "install" them onto the USB drive in portable mode, then create an excrypted portion of the drive that can only be opened after mounting it with the password.

 

[Berne]

Hi
Trucrypt is super, a hard drive master. Now creating a Volume on the USB thumbdrive? Lets skip ahead to the created file on my USB key, when I click the file I get ' Choose a programe to open the file ' ? So I navigate to Trucrypt and choose that to open the file but then I get ' F:MYVOL ( Chosen name ) is not a valid WIN32 app '? To assist I have not physically cut and pasted the Trucrypt application onto my thumbdrive if that is the intention?

Any thoughts,

Berne

 

[sourceninja]

You want to setup truecrypt as a 'travel drive' or something like that (it's been a while). Then you can get your data anywhere there is a admin enabled account.

 

[Binky]

Each program can be installed to your desktop computer. Then, you run it on the desktop and install it to the USB drive (each has a similar function in about the same place in the menus).

Once its on the USB drive in an unencrypted space, you can use it to make an excrypted container on the USB drive. This encrypted container is mounted like a hard drive with a password.

If you insert this USB drive into another computer, you will see the unencrypted files and the encrypted file (one large encryted and inaccesible file). Run trutecrypt and mount the encrypted volume to get access to the data.

FreeOTFE has their "explorer" program that doesn't need admin rights on the computer you use it on (e.g. locked down work system). This may or may not be useful.

 

[Berne]

Hi,
Eureka sorted the USB via Truecrypt, thank you.

Note: About using this USB, I can only open the USB on another pc only if an Admin ( Not Me ) has been established on that pc, but I do NOT need to be the administrator on the pc?
Ill take a look at the OTFE.

Later,

Berne

 

[Binky]

Truecrypt needs admin rights to work. I like FreeOTFE more because you can use the regular (installed with admin rights) program on the machines you frequent the most (home, work, etc.), but you can also drop their "explorer" utility on the USB drive. Just run this on any computer where you don't have admin rights, or where you just want to grab a quick file or two.

Another tip - put an unexcrypted text file on the drive with your name and phone number. If you lose it, there's always the very slight chance that a decent person might contact you to return it.