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So basically, it doesn't introduce anything that Mac OS X can't already do, but just streamlines the process a little easier. Guess that warrants the reasonable price.

This is all fine and everything, but can anyone tell me how to do something I want to do and haven't been able to figure out?

Having switched from Windows about a year ago, I don't know how to "encrypt" an entire drive on OS X. In other words, I have several external drives that I like to always have connected and mounted, but is there a way to password protect an entire drive under OS X, in such a way that it doesn't have to be "made invisible" first. So, say someone I don't completely trust sits down at my machine -- they can physically see external drive #1 sitting there and they can see it in the drive list on the left (sidebar), but then when they go to click on it (open it) is there a way that they can just be greeted with a password and username login box?

That way, I can just enter my username/PW but they'd be stuck for 100 years or whatever with no luck. Is this easy to do and I'm just missing it? Any third party apps for Mac?

Thanks.

Truecrypt is superior to this, is free and open source, and it lets you encrypt an entire partition/drive.

http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/26875/truecrypt

Jan 09, 09 - 11:51 am Comment from: Jamie

@NoviceMac,

You can't do that as far as I'm aware, but a workaround would be to create an encrypted Disk Image on the external HD, as big as you can make it (preferably to the size of the HD), then when you mount the external HD, you have to have a password to open the only file on the HD - your encrypted Disk Image.

One drawback - any naughty user can delete your entire encrypted image.

Or you could lock your screen when you go away from your machine, or enable guest account and fast user switching, and go to the login screen when you are away - someone can still login as a guest to your Mac, but won't be able to access your HDs...

Some food for thought.

Jan 09, 09 - 11:51 am Comment from: Randian

@NoviceMac

Have you tried asking this question on the Apple Discussion site?

Jamie -- Thanks for the tips. I was shooting for the least hassle possible, especially since a couple of the extra drives are inside the case on the MacPro. I want to be able to access them with minimum fuss but keep others from accessing them at all. Making them invisible just seems like it would screw ME up and be more steps every time I sat down at the machine. The friends who stop already know I have a ton of HD space -- I want it clear that they're welcome to use my bookmarks and things like that but some of the drives are simply off limits.

Randian -- Yes, I did post it over there once. Never got a solid answer. Or at least, maybe not the answer I guess I was looking for

Thanks.

Jan 09, 09 - 01:52 pm Comment from: Me In LA

Encrypted Sparse Disk Image.
Free.
Secure.
Works.

Jan 09, 09 - 01:53 pm Comment from: Me In LA

@ NoviceMac:

FileVault.
Part of the OS.
System Preferences / Security.

SB

Jan 09, 09 - 04:40 pm Comment from: Scot Murphy

Nope, NoviceMac, TrueCrypt is the one you want. Not only can you encrypt an entire drive with it, you can create separately-encrypted hidden volumes within a volume for that extra layer of security. It uses up to three encryption algorithms on the same volume (your choice). It's also free and open-source.