How to lock a USB or External Hard Drive

[Sokanon]

How to lock a usb or external hard disk. I have both of them. I have a hp 8GB usb and 160GB external drive. I want some option by which I can lock them and carry wherever I want. So for that what kind of tool while I need.

[Osman84]

If you are not carrying heavy data then there is a easy option. You can archive them to rar file and then lock with password. Winrar comes with password protection utility. I will recommend you to try that once. There is no need of any kind of third party tool here.

[Roockie]

I had used a tool long time before for this purpose. I had found it on article mentioning as powerful usb protection tool. It just locks your drive with password which you cannot open easily. It helps you to protect your data more properly. The software is called as Cryptainer LE. It is free for use. You can use this to lock the drive and stay worry free about data leak. The download size of this software is just 7MB. The tool locks your usb or external drive with 448bit strong encryption which is not easy to break.

The software installation and usage is very easy. Remember that you need the system on which you will lock the usb drive. When you lock the drive, you can see a icon of virtual drive on your screen. The data can only be access if you had decrypted the volume. It is not complicated but very powerful. It can help you to block unwanted access to your files. There is another software called as Flash Drive Security which is used for the same purpose. This software helps you to lock a folder in usb drive. It is not necessary to block the entire volume. If you worry about the forgetting password then avoid using Cryptainer LE. Use a folder locker instead.

[B^eha^r]

I am using PenProtect. This application is secure and nice option for those you want to lock their drive. It also lock flash card. I am not sure about external driver. But you can protect your data easily. You must try this.

[Dodger]

Such tools are bit risky while using. Because in case if something happens you forget the password then there are no chances or recovering your content. You will need to format the drive to remove everything from it and use it back from start. I had used a very tiny tool for the same. It is called as Roho Mini Drive. There is nothing special in this tool. It is very basic and easy to use. When you run the same it will show option to create a Roho Disk.

This Roho disk gets blocked and no one can open the same without putting a password. Just add the password and click on Create Disk. Once it is created the drive is locked. I think this works quiet nicely on external drives also. It is recommended that you must keep a track of your password stored somewhere. I am not just talking about my tool but whatever you use. It is not possible for a average user to use tons of password breaking utilities and extracting data out of it.

[$OLIVER$]

That is not correct. I had faced the same. My drive was locked with similar software. I opened the same on a linux pc and was able to copy paste content. Just avoid forgetting your password.

[mathews]

There are many tools. One of them is Storage Crypt. The tool is simple and I think it is free. I lock my external drive with this. I had lots of movies and my friend just ask for my drive unnecessarily. The tool is good and provides you ample of other feature. For security point of view I found this tool as one of the best. It just like regular encrypting tool that provides you lock facility.

It uses some 128bit aes encryption support which does not allow easily access your website. The password keeps usb protected. Once the drive is locked you insert it any computer it will not open. It will ask for password every time. There is a .exe file in the usb which do not allow anyone to access the same. I hope you will like the same after trying.

[Saket Shukla]

Whey don't you use bitlocker in Windows 7. That is one of the best tool. Just go in control panel run the wizard and lock your file. Once lock it is not easy to unlock it on any computer.

[Rishab]

Bitlocker is very complicated. If you had lost the password then forget the data. That is reason I do not use such tools. I do not lock the entire drive, but a folder inside that. That is much safer. Because if something happens you can atleast copy paste the folder. There are some recovery software which can be used to extract files out the same.

There are many password protected tool. Some drives by Sandisk comes with a chip inside them. This chip is responsible for lock and if you forget the password then it will not work even after formatting.

[Agneya]

Just get a nice folder lock tool. Put all sensitive information in once section and lock it. That's all. It is not so complicated. I will advice you to use the same.