Edgar Cole
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Encrypting an External Hard Disk Drive
I have a 2.5" Western Digital drive which I connect to my laptop via one of the USB ports. I was just wondering what it would take to encrypt that drive. Currently, none of the other drives on my system are encrypted, and I only want to encrypt the one connected to the USB port. When I purchased the laptop directly from Dell a couple of weeks ago, I elected to do so without encrypting the disk, so I'm assuming there's no encryption software installed. If after encrypting the drive I can "see" it only from the laptop, that's fine with me. Any suggestions?
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ASKER
So, would it be possible to create a partition (I'm running Windows 7 Professional), move some files or folders to it and then use TrueCrypt to encrypt that partition?
Nope you install truecrypt then provide an unformatted partition. Start truecrypt. Choose create encrypted partition. This will take a while. Then you select the partition,press mount enter the password
Then you get a new drive ready to take your files.
Then you get a new drive ready to take your files.
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ASKER
Yep, I was successful in encrypting a "partition in place" which contained 100 gigabytes of data... thanks for all of your help. Now I want to encrypt a brand new partition on the system disk. The challenge is in creating the new partition. I don't think TrueCrypt does that, does it?
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No truecrypt cannot create a partition.
It can use only existing partitions empty or not in a destructive (erasing) or preserving way.
Even windows xp is able to create a partition on the device even if you bounce back to fdisk.
It can use only existing partitions empty or not in a destructive (erasing) or preserving way.
Even windows xp is able to create a partition on the device even if you bounce back to fdisk.
All you need to access the drive is the right password. so don't choose a too easy one.