Password Protect USB Drives

USB drive are considered to be the best option to transfer data or to take the back-up of important data. They come in different capacities, therefore they can be used to store official files or even the personal videos or pictures. And to access the stored data you just need to plug this in USB port of your computer. Because of this much portability the Data Security is very less or almost zero. So, to protect the data we need to protect the drive with a password.

TrueCrypt is such a free tool that can protect the drive with a password. TrueCrypt uses several different encryption algorithms, including AES, Serpent and Twofish. Those algorithms can be combined in many different ways to create complex encryption schemes — those looking to delve into the technical details of TrueCrypt's encryption algorithms can check out the dozens of pages of information on its website. 

How to : Protect your Data

Step 1 : Download and Install TrueCrypt.

Download TrueCrypt. And since you are putting this on your USB drive, you do not install this anywhere. When you double-click the downloaded file, you will see this. Choose the "Extract" option. This will just unpack the files onto your computer and not install anything.

When the files are unpacked, move all the unpacked files to your USB drive. Once they are sitting on your USB drive, again don’t install anything. Just leave them there.

Step 2 : Turn Truecrypt Into “Traveller Mode”

Open your USB drive folder, then double-click the “Truecrypt.exe” file and this opens up the main screen. Go to “tools” then “traveler disk setup”. That opens this :

Change “create traveler disk files at” to whichever PC drive you have your USB stick in at the moment. Have the box underneath ticked. As to the Autorun configuration, well that’s down to personal preference so you decide. Press create, when you are done. You’ll get a message a few moments later telling you that the traveler mode has been successfully created.

Step 3 : Move Your Data Into Your USB drive

Now move your desired files into your USB drive. Notice we haven’t encrypted anything yet. That comes in step 4.

Step 4 : Create An Encrypted Area

OK, now we’re going to do the encryption. Go to the Truecrypt folder in your USB stick and double-click “Truecrypt Format.exe”. That brings up this screen.

Choose “create a file container” and follow these instructions from step 3 to make an encrypted container. I'm not discussing it here since it's a long process. One important point though – do NOT fill up the whole USB drive. I would only make a container that fills up maximum 75% of your USB drive. Leave the rest free and unencrypted. It’s always good to have some free space.

Before anybody points out option 2 which encrypts the entire USB stick, everyone I have talked to about this recommends that this shouldn’t be done because undoing it later is tricky and it can potentially mess up your USB drive. Doing it my way is better because i) you have some free space left for unencrypted files and ii) if you don’t want Truecrypt anymore, you can just delete the whole lot. Simple.

Step 5 : Move The Programs Into The Encrypted Area

Once the encrypted container is created, you will then have three things in your USB drive – the folder with your programs / files, the folder with the Truecrypt application and the encrypted container you have just made. Now what you are going to do is move your programs and files INSIDE the encrypted container.You do this by double-clicking “Truecrypt.exe” and “mounting” (choosing) on another drive, the encrypted container you have just made. This opens it up and unencrypts it. When it opens up, just drag your files and programs inside using your mouse. When you’re done, just dismount the container which closes it back up again and heavily encrypts it. No-one can get inside now without knowing the password. So I hope you chose a very Strong password!

Don’t forget to delete the programs and files which are outside the encrypted container – the ones you just dragged inside the container are copies. If it reassures you, mount the container again, open it up and peek inside. You’ll see your files and apps inside all safe and sound.

All we’ve done is put an encrypted container on the USB stick along with the Truecrypt encryption program to encrypt and unencrypt your files. If anyone was to steal the USB stick or find it (if you dropped it), all they would find on the drive would be an encrypted container which, without the password, is absolutely useless and unbreakable.  TrueCrypt works with Microsoft Windows 7/Vista/XP/2000; it is also available for Apple Mac OS X and Linux systems, making it a good choice for users who work with multiple platforms.

 [ Download TrueCrypt ]