Showing posts with label HDD. Show all posts
Showing posts with label HDD. Show all posts

How To Password Protect Your USB Stick/External HDD in 3 Easy Ways

USB thumb drives/ external HDD are small, portable, and can be read on any device with a USB port. These features make them the perfect vehicles to transport data between computers. Due to their portability, however, they are also easily lost. Thus sensitive files callired on a USB stick should always be protected.

Unfortunately, you cannot simply password protect your entire USB stick, like you have password protected your Facebook account. Tools that will seriously protect your your data, all work with encryption. Unless you want to invest in a secure flash drive with hardware encryption, you can use freeware applications to achieve a similar level of protection. This article summarizes some of the easiest ways to password protect files and folders on your computer.

1. Manually Save Files With a Password

As mentioned above, you can’t safely password protect your entire USB stick without using encryption. However, if you shy away from the time consuming encryption process of entire folders and need a really quick way to only protect a few selected files, maybe you can simply save those with a USB password.

Many programs, including Word and Excel, allow you to save files with a password. For example in Word, while the document is open, go to > Tools > Options and switch to the Security tab. Now enter a Password to open, click OK, re-enter the password when asked, and finally save your document and don’t forget the password.




2. Create An Encrypted & Password Protected Partition With Rohos Mini Drive

Many tools can encrypt and password protect your data. Most, however, require Administrator rights to run on any given computer. Unfortunately, this is also the case for one of the best encryption tools: TrueCrypt. Tools like these are not a viable solution if you need to securely transfer data to a computer where you do not have Administrator rights.

Rohos Mini Drive, on the other hand, is a tool that will work whether or not you possess Administrator rights. The free edition can create a hidden, encrypted, and password protected partition of up to 2GB on your USB flash drive. The tool uses automatic on-the-fly encryption with AES 256 bit key length. Thanks to the portable Rohos Disk Browser, which is installed directly on your flash drive, no encryption drivers need to be available on the local system. Subsequently the protected data will be accessible anywhere.





Once you have created a password protected and encrypted container on your external drive, you can open it by clicking the Rohos Mini.exe icon from the root folder. After entering the password, your Rohos disk will be mounted and accessible via your Computer, i.e. the directory of all drives and partitions connected to your system. To close your Rohos partition, right-click the Rohos icon in the Windows taskbar notification area and select Disconnect.



A more detailed description of Rohos Mini Drive can be read in my PDF guide The Office Worker’s 101 Guide to a USB Thumb Drive.


3. Lock Your Flash Drive with USB Safeguard

Like Rohos Mini Drive, USB Safeguard is a portable app that runs directly from your flash drive and thus does not require Administrator rights on the local computer. It uses on-the-fly AES 256 bit encryption. The free version is limited to drive size of 2GB.

Download the usbsafeguard.exe and copy it to your USB flash drive. Run it from your flash drive and enter a password to lock the drive. To unlock it, run the file again and enter the password. The locking procedure must be repeated every time you want the drive to be locked as the tool will remember its last status, i.e. locked or unlocked. This also means that you can change the password every time you use USB Safeguard.


Let me know your questions here :  Snehal[at]Tehcprocee[dot]com. Stay Tuned. 


Install and run Windows on a USB / External HDD using an ISO

Ever wanted a copy of Windows you can take with you wherever you go, to use on any computer you want? It's possible: here's how to install a portable version of Windows 8 on a USB hard drive that you can take anywhere.P
The Enterprise version of Windows 8 has a feature called Windows To Go that lets you install a portable version of Windows on a "certified" flash drive. Unfortunately, most of us don't have the Enterprise edition of Windows 8, nor a certified flash drive. However, there is a tool called WinToUSB that can essentially do the same thing, no matter what version of Windows you have. Here's how it works.
WinToUSB is a free software that allows you to install and run Windows operating system on a USB hard drive or USB flash drive, using an ISO image or CD/DVD drive as the source of installation. WinToUSB also support creating bootable WinPE USB drive, it can help you to transfer the contents of WinPE to the USB drive and make the drive bootable.

WinToUSB's key features include:
  • Easy-to-use wizard interface that provides step-by-step instructions for installing Windows/WinPE on a USB drive.
  • Install Windows/WinPE from an ISO image or CD/DVD drive.
  • Support for Windows NT 6.x OS family (Vista/7/8/8.1/2008/2008 R2/2012/2012 R2) and WinPE 2/3/4/5.
  • Use any edition of Windows 8(.1) to create Windows To Go USB drive.
  • Support for MBR and GPT disk layouts.
  • Don't need install WAIK (Windows Automated Installation Kit) or WADK (Windows Assessment and Deployment Kit).
Important notes:
  • Windows Vista/7/2008/2008 R2 does not have built-in USB 3.0 support, so Windows Vista/7/2008/2008 R2 will have to be booted from a USB 2.0 port.
  • USB flash drives are very slow. It takes a long time to install and run Windows from a USB flash drive, highly recommend using a USB hard disk or Windows To Go Certified Drives.
  • Windows To Go drives can be booted on different computers, so you can carry it to anywhere and use it on any computer.
  • Windows 7 is not completely portable. You may have activation and driver problems when booting on different computers.
  • You need to be an administrator on the computer you are installing the WinToUSB on.

System requirements

  • Windows XP or later (32/64-bit).
  • Intel® Pentium® processor.
  • 256MB of available RAM (512MB or more recommended).
  • 10MB of free space on your hard drive.
  • 800x600 graphic device (higher resolution recommended).

Downloads

Download WinToUSB V1.4
Let me know here:  Snehal [at] TechProceed [dot] com,  if you need any further help.  :-)

How to Install a Second Operating System Onto an External Hard Drive From an .Iso File

While many PC users stick with the operating system that comes with their PC, others enjoy dabbling in other operating systems. If you want to use two operating systems on the same computer, you have a couple of options. The first is to simply create another partition on the hard drive, while the other is to use an external hard drive. The latter is the easier option and requires only that you change the correct settings to install the second operating system on your external hard drive. 

Things you will need
  • Blank CD-R or DVD-R
  • Program to burn the .iso file

Instructions


1. Check to make sure that your particular operating system can be run on an external hard drive and supports dual-booting so you can safely run two operating systems on your computer. Certain operating systems, such as Windows, cannot be easily installed on external hard drives. However, you can easily install operating systems such as Ubuntu and various other derivatives of Linux on an external hard drive.

2. Burn the .iso operating system file to a bootable CD-R or DVD-R. You may use programs such as ImgBurn, CDBurnerXP or Nero, among others, to do the job.

3. Plug your external hard drive into the USB port on your computer.

4. Insert your burned CD-R or DVD-R into the CD-Rom drive. Restart your computer.

5. Press any key to boot from the CD or DVD.

6. Follow the on-screen prompts to begin the installation. When it comes to choosing where to install the operating system, select your external hard drive and not the primary drive or partition. This ensures that you do not overwrite your first operating system. Click "Next" to proceed.

7. Follow the remaining on-screen prompts to complete the installation process. This varies from operating system to operating system, so consult your manual when necessary.

8. Restart the computer after installing the second operating system. Press "F1" or "F2" to enter the BIOS. Make sure that your external hard drive is given top boot priority, so that you can boot into the second operating system. Exit and save the changes.

9. Boot into your second operating system. As long as you are able to boot into your second operating system with no problems, then you've done everything correctly in installing the second operating system on an external hard drive.

Let me know the queries at Snehal [at] TechProceed [dot] com  :-)