securing/password protecting a USB flash drive?

closed

at what stage, the create volume stage?

if you still have your flash drive data on c: and it's readable without a password, you can overwrite it, choose a different name, whatever.

if you moved (as opposed to copied) your data to the mounted truecrypt volume, then you don't want to overwrite the truecrypt file, otherwise you'll lose your data

choose a different name to be safe

Simplistik

The Admin thing is odd, because using Windows7 it just brings up the normal prompt, you click 'Yes' and it runs ok..

Anyway, it sounds like you have created 2 files of the same name at different locations.

If you can't find the locations using Explorer, then do a search for that file name and RENAME one of them.

Then you can load both the files using different drive letters in Truecrypt.
Both can be mounted at the same time on different drive letters.
and of course both the encrypted files can be used for different stored files.

But just COPY files until you get the hang of it.

hanwellmike

I tried Truecrypt myself a couple of years ago but found it a bit complicated. Especially, the encrypted flash drive would not work on PC's that were not Truecrypt enabled. So I could not use the drive on work PC's.

So I bought a USB drive (Kingston Data Traveller Locker+) that had password protection access built in. Not expensive and I am really happy with it. Check it out http://www.amazon.co.uk/Kingston-8GB-DataTraveler-Locker-Encryption/dp/B002S2KTYU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1336973457&sr=8-1

guzzbuzz

Guys many thanks for all your help, you have been fanstastic in trying to get someone as stupid as me to get this to work.

I found it very confusing!!

So this morning i gave "safehouse" a go....and to be honest it is a million times easier and i had it working in about 20 mins

So now everything needs a password as soon as i put the dongle into any computer...

For anybody else reading this who might not be that "techie" i would recommend safehouse over true crypt as it really is simple to get it working

Many thanks for all the help

Simplistik

Thanks for letting us know,
Glad you found what you wanted,

I took a look at the Free version, just out of interest,

and although it may not be quite up to the security level of Truecrypt, it is very easy to use in portable mode, using just one .exe file.

The big plus over Truecrypt in this mode is that it doesn't need to create 'virtual drives' which i think may be the problem for Truecrypt, as that may require Admin rights in some OS's.
It doesn't need a virtual drive because when correct pw entered, up pops their version of Explorer, almost identical to Windows Explorer.

Also possible to make self-extracting email attachments, so even if the other person doesn't have the SafeHouse program, all they have to do is double click on the attachment and input the pw.

It packages the .exe file with the attachment, so this does tend to make the attachments a bit bulky.
As an example, a 500kB encrypted file ends up as a 7MB attachment.
Still useful, though..

guzzbuzz

Simplistik wrote: »

Thanks for letting us know,
Glad you found what you wanted,

I took a look at the Free version, just out of interest,

and although it may not be quite up to the security level of Truecrypt, it is very easy to use in portable mode, using just one .exe file.

The big plus over Truecrypt in this mode is that it doesn't need to create 'virtual drives' which i think may be the problem for Truecrypt, as that may require Admin rights in some OS's.
It doesn't need a virtual drive because when correct pw entered, up pops their version of Explorer, almost identical to Windows Explorer.

Also possible to make self-extracting email attachments, so even if the other person doesn't have the SafeHouse program, all they have to do is double click on the attachment and input the pw.

It packages the .exe file with the attachment, so this does tend to make the attachments a bit bulky.
As an example, a 500kB encrypted file ends up as a 7MB attachment.
Still useful, though..

Thanks for all your help with truecrypt though mate, i did really appreciate it.

It was fine until the whole "mounting" the drive part, then it just got really complex for me.

I think when hanwellmike come here and said he also found it hard to use, i knew that was my cue to give up and try something else!

safe house is so simple, you just download the installation file to your pc, then when you install it.......you install it directly onto the flash drive.

Then run the .exe from there and create the volume folder directly onto the flash drive.

The guide is really simple and shows you how to do it all.

Plus i then took that pen drive to 4 or 5 pc's which i knew didn't have safe house installed and it was so easy to get it up and running.

I have now password protected about 7 flash drives all in minutes

Thanks for the help

Toxteth_OGrady

Looks like OP has found a simple solution but for anyone else looking for something similar give Rohos Mini Disk a try.

If you need a good, cross-platform solution try PortablePGP

guzzbuzz

Toxteth_OGrady wrote: »

Looks like OP has found a simple solution but for anyone else looking for something similar give Rohos Mini Disk a try.

If you need a good, cross-platform solution try PortablePGP

Thanks mate, will look into those aswell at some point. Much appreciated.