Is there any good external HDD encryption software?

Q&A

By Mark Daniels, 3rd December 2008

I have a Seagate 750GB external hard drive. All the data on it isn't secure. How do I ensure that, if I lose the drive and somebody 'finds' it, they can't access my files?

Is there any low-cost or free software to create encrypted, password-protected archives?

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Posted Wednesday 10th December 2008 10:20 GMT

Piloti

Thanks....

So, Truecrypt it is.

Thanks Everyone.

Posted Friday 5th December 2008 14:41 GMT

Iain

Plausible Deniability

"Its the type of encryption that if police/FBI/etc encounter, they try some common passwords, but its useless to attempt to crack unless its of major importance."

Such as a prosecution under the CJA.

But luckily TrueCrypt comes with the plausible deniability fucntion which, as yet, I have not explored but have been reliably informed is very good. It works by creating a visible encrypted container (to which it is 'safe' to release the key to an adversary) and can contain some fake files (eg a spreadsheet named 'bank details' filled with crap) but also a second layer of encryption which is not visible (not 100% sure how that works yet, not currently storing anything I need to be plausibly denaiable about) and contains the actual files you wish to keep safe.

Posted Thursday 4th December 2008 14:07 GMT

Carl Colijn

And fifth TrueCrypt

Have used Cryptainer LE in the past (free light edition), but switched to TrueCrypt later on; no need for me to look back. Same kind of software, but Cryptainer for one is limited to 25 MB volumes in the free edition.

I also have an external hard drive that I use for backup purposes of my business data. However, since when the time comes for me to actually use the backup my original PC will likely be R.I.P.'ed, so I opted not to format the whole drive but made a file container as large as the drive itself minus the size needed for the TrueCrypt installer and runtime version. This way I can easily access my data on other machines as well. Maybe in hindsight I could have also chosen to set up 2 partitions for this, but hey, this works well enough for me.