USB Pen Drive encryption

MarkW7

MarkW7

MarkW7

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Hey all!

I've just got a new 16gb pen drive [Woo] and i'll be keeping a lot of important files on there and if i was to lose it - they could all be taken, so i was looking for some sort of encryption but i don't really know what.
I was thinking when you plug the usb in it prompts you with a password box and without the correct one you couldn't do anything?

Have you have any experience of this in the past?

Thanks
 
Hmm, I know Windows 7 has Bit Locker for USB keys.

I'm sure there are some free 3rd part apps around. I would google Bit Locker USB for some results
 
I'd like to have encryption on a UBS drive... but it would have to work on random Macs, XP and Vista, ie no software installed on the machine. What's available?
 
clv101 said:
I'd like to have encryption on a UBS drive... but it would have to work on random Macs, XP and Vista, ie no software installed on the machine. What's available?
Click to expand...

There really needs to be a universal standard for password protecting USB drives, if there isn't one already.

Something that works on every OS - Windows, OSX, Linux, etc.
 
truecrypt in traveller mode is one option.

its what i am using on my pen atm.

you create a container file on the usb stick and extract the program on the stick then run the program and mount the container.

works on vista and xp unsure about mac or linux but there are linux and mac versions of the software whether they would works in this way i do not know.
 
siclilmonkey said:
truecrypt in traveller mode is one option.

its what i am using on my pen atm.

you create a container file on the usb stick and extract the program on the stick then run the program and mount the container.

works on vista and xp unsure about mac or linux but there are linux and mac versions of the software whether they would works in this way i do not know.
Click to expand...

Truecrypt should work fine, plus it's robust and also free :)
 
The problem with truecrypt is the user needs to be logged in as administrator to launch the decryption software on the stick. If you're just shuttling between your own PCs then its workable albeit annoying but if you need to take it to work or something... instant fail.

I've searched high and low for a solution for our workplace but found nothing so far that fits the bill. Lots of maybes but nothing that ticks all the boxes.
 
theheyes said:
The problem with truecrypt is the user needs to be logged in as administrator to launch the decryption software on the stick. If you're just shuttling between your own PCs then its workable albeit annoying but if you need to take it to work or something... instant fail.

I've searched high and low for a solution for our workplace but found nothing so far that fits the bill. Lots of maybes but nothing that ticks all the boxes.
Click to expand...


This will be a problem as i'll be using it in school = lower then limited account. :(
 
Found one!

http://www.rohos.com/products/rohos-mini-drive/

http://lifehacker.com/5044260/rohos-mini-drive-encrypts-your-usb-drive-files

Some googling:

I just finished testing Rohos. It seems that if you configure the virtual drive as NTFS, you will need to run the program once with an admin account. That makes sense I guess but it is bothersome if one won't have access to an admin account on a particular machine they have to use it with. Additionally, the files are read only when accessed via a limited/standard accounts. However, if the drive is formatted as FAT32 this isn't necessary. So, it seems that to make the program completely portable it means formatting the encrypted virtual disk with FAT32.
Click to expand...



We need a guinea pig. :p
 
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" Website "

The application uses AES 256 bit encryption and currently has a partition size limit of 1GB. Rohos Mini Drive is a free download for Windows only
Click to expand...

I need 16GB and
Multi OS.
 
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It seems this isn't going to work the way we want it to without some standard built into operating systems. Even then I'm sure I'd go to conferences and need to pass a file to someone using an old XP laptop or something and it'll fail.

What I want is simple, making it happen seems hard. I want to be able to stick my USB memory stick into any computer, Mac, XP, Vista, Linux and be prompted for a password, without which the files can't be accessed.
 
The only solution so far that sounds ideal is Windows 7 Bitlocker to Go but with the slight drawback of deploying a new operating system. :o;)

Joking aside, it does look very good and is backward compatible with XP and Vista in read-only mode. As far as I can tell you just insert the Bitlocker enabled usb device into the computer and it prompts you for a password which is exactly what I'm looking for.

Truecrypt is great. I've encrypted my laptop with Truecrypt and the only time you know its there is when prompted for a password on boot. The removable storage implementation however isn't as slick. Even if you didn't require administrator rights to make it work, getting end users to mount and unmount the volume would blow their minds and they'd never use it.

The joys. :rolleyes:
 
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