Password protect a USB Drive?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Wooster
  • Start date Start date
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Wooster

Hi

Is it possible (with Windows XP) to password protect the contents of a USB
Disk Drive?

My 1GByte memory stick holds confidential information, and if I lose it,
anyone can see the contents of the drive. Can I password protect it?

I believe there are security programs that will do this, but (I think) rely
on their software being installed on any PC that the protected drive is
plugged into. This wouldn't work for me, as I need to plug it into a variety
of PC's.

Can anyone help ?

Regards to all.
 
Wooster wrote:
> Hi
>
> Is it possible (with Windows XP) to password protect the contents of a USB
> Disk Drive?
>
> My 1GByte memory stick holds confidential information, and if I lose it,
> anyone can see the contents of the drive. Can I password protect it?
>
> I believe there are security programs that will do this, but (I think) rely
> on their software being installed on any PC that the protected drive is
> plugged into. This wouldn't work for me, as I need to plug it into a variety
> of PC's.

XP and Vista do not use passwords to protect resources. NT-based
operating systems use permissions instead.

Passwording of folders is not supported unless you zip them. When you do
(right click a folder, then "send to > compressed folder") and then open
the zip file, you will find an option under file>"add a password".
Otherwise, use third-party software. Google "password protect folders".

I believe that True Crypt can encrypt a USB key.


Malke
--
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
"Don't Panic!"
MS-MVP Windows - Shell/User
 
"Wooster" <Wooster@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:5A37C994-E7D4-4017-B5C3-FD2E6E1982AA@microsoft.com...
> Hi
>
> Is it possible (with Windows XP) to password protect the contents of a USB
> Disk Drive?
>
> My 1GByte memory stick holds confidential information, and if I lose it,
> anyone can see the contents of the drive. Can I password protect it?
>
> I believe there are security programs that will do this, but (I think)
> rely
> on their software being installed on any PC that the protected drive is
> plugged into. This wouldn't work for me, as I need to plug it into a
> variety
> of PC's.
>
> Can anyone help ?
>
> Regards to all.

The key requirement for you is that you need to move the data from system to
system. Thus, the encryption program has to be on the USB disk itself.
Many sticks come with such utilities these days.

The XP encryption utility is tied to the account. You can't move the
encrypted data to another system without importing the account credentials.

You should also be aware that memory sticks aren't incredibly durable and
are known to suddenly and permanently fail. With this in mind, you should
NOT rely on the stick as your sole archive of this material, and you should
keep an unencrypted copy (or encrypted with an appropriate method)
elsewhere.

HTH
-pk
 
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