#EXTERNAL HARD DISK PASSWORD PROTECTION UPGRADE#
#EXTERNAL HARD DISK PASSWORD PROTECTION PORTABLE#

If that's what they've done, then if your enclosure goes belly-up, you won't be able to recover your data by transplanting the enclosed drive into a second enclosure and using the same password. Both the enclosures I linked there allow you to protect your data with fairly short passwords, which means that the only reasonable way to make the encryption strong is to 'stretch' that password into an effectively uncrackable key with the help of a unique-per-enclosure randomly-selected hardware ID.

The enclosure itself has a keypad you use to enter your chosen password, after doing which the enclosure+drive assembly presents itself over USB as a normal, non-encrypted drive until it's powered down again.ДЄs with any whole-drive encryption method, you really really want to make sure you have a good backup strategy in place, because data can be lost not only due to drive failure but to key loss as well. Then it is 'as good as' encryption, because it is encryption. Stick it in a Zalman ZM-VE400 or iodd 2541 enclosure. I am looking for a simple way to password protect the whole HDD so that if it is attached to any computer, a password is needed to access it.

#EXTERNAL HARD DISK PASSWORD PROTECTION PORTABLE#

So unuser friendly The fact that there is a forum for an portable hard drive says it all How do I get rid of password protection I need to do this because the smucks at WD make it so only the administrator can access the drive. Theoretically you might be able to format the drive with NTFS (again, assuming Windows-only) and then put a folder on there that belongs to another user and then log in as that user whenever you want to access the drive, but that sounds like a pain in the neck to work with. First all this is the biggest piece of bleep deiviece I have bought for a computer. I don't believe you'll be able to find an option for password-protecting an existing drive that doesn't also encrypt the drive, though.

#EXTERNAL HARD DISK PASSWORD PROTECTION UPGRADE#

Whether or not you feel it's worth doing the upgrade to Pro is up to you, and this is obviously not a good solution if you require access to the drive on OSX or Linux.

Unfortunately, if you don't have Windows 7 Ultimate or Enterprise, or Windows 8/8.1/10 Pro or Enterprise, you won't be able to create a new Bitlocker-protected drive (although you can still read Bitlocker-To-Go protected drives on non Pro/Enterprise versions of Windows). Seconding that Bitlocker is the lowest-effort way of doing this sort of thing on Windows you just set it up with the password you want on the drive, and Windows prompts you for it whenever you connect it to another computer.

External hard disk password protection