Password Protecting External Hard Drives - how to?

DIYhelp76

Hi

I back up to two USB external hard drives:
Seagate FreeAgent Go Flex and 
Western Digital My Passport

What is the best/easiest way to password protect these external drives? And perhaps with a way to recover a password if lost etc?

I copy over all contents of my laptop to these. There is one main folder with loads of sub-folders. The total GB is very high 343GB

It is not all sensitive data, but in case the hard drive is every lost, I'd like its contents to be safeguarded.

On Google I discovered I can create a "zipped folder" and apply a password to that.  Is that a good way?

Many thx in advance

DIYhelp76

I do have Windows10 Pro and Bitlocker and found a video saying I can use Bitlocker to apply encryption and password to the external drive.  Would this be an option - or is there a better option?

The only concern I have is what if any new laptop I have doesn't have Bitlocker - how would I be able to open the contents of the protected external drive?

Thx again.

DIYhelp76

My only concern about using Bitlocker is that I use that currently on my laptop and it recently went into a "Bitlocker loop" where it crashed and wouldn't allow me access until I had tried repeated recovery options.  So I'm now a bit wary of Bitlocker.

IvanOpinion

You could try using VeraCrypt and create an encrypted partition on the drive. 
You could add a clue to the password in a separate file on the unencrypted portion of the disk or even in the disk label.

TMSG

+1 for VeraCrypt. This application is proven, well-supported and secure (if sensible passwords are used ). And it's available for Windows, Mac OSX and Linux so you could directly use your external HDs with those systems (eg a friend's Linux PC, or perhaps you yourself switching to a Mac or Linux).

facade

The mypassport supports password protection.

You have to install the support programme to set the initial password (You can set it when the drive has data on).

You want WD security from https://support-en.wd.com/app/products/downloads/softwaredownloads

I have a couple of these drives, I certainly removed the password with them full, so I can't see why you can't set it.

In my head I have this fantasy that they are hardware encrypted.

I uninstalled the WD utility as soon as I had used it, it insists on loading at startup, and I didn't like that...

DIYhelp76

Hi, thanks very much everyone for the helpful replies. I'd not heard of Veracrypt before, but will look into this as an option.

outtatune

If you keep an eye out for when Ashampoo update their Backup Pro app, as they'll often giveaway free registration of older versions. That will allow you to create an automated password protected backup, rather than password protecting the external drive itself.

If a forgotten password is recoverable by you, it's recoverable by anybody else.

km1500

I have never had any problem with bitlocker and if you have Windows pro then this is what I would use to encrypt your drive 

use a password to encrypt it and keep the recovery key in case you ever forget the password - print it off and store it somewhere safe

Frozen_up_north

+1 Veracrypt, which is a fork of Truecrypt. Bitlocker is fine too for external drives.

FWIW, with Bitlocker on your PC/laptop set it to use at least a pre-boot PIN to enhance security, as there are published exploits where access to the TPM module gives a route into your data if you just rely on the default (Windows log-on) option...