Advice: Encrypt Ex.HDD/Flash software.

**hauntedscientist** · January 14th, 2012, 03:41 PM

Hi all

is there any software which can encrypt a External HDD/Flash drive and once encrypted, does this protect it from formatting?
what i mean is: if i protect a external HDD and if someone else tries to open it and finds nothing in it, will he be able to format it even though its encrypted?

thanks

**Taxmancometh** · January 14th, 2012, 04:55 PM

If the drive is encrypted there will be data still on the drive, it just never disappears like you think. The best encryption I can recommend is Truecrypt. Be sure to read how to use it properly. TrueCrypt - Free Open-Source On-The-Fly Disk Encryption Software for Windows 7/Vista/XP, Mac OS X and Linux

PS. And the drive can still be formatted. If this were a laptop sometimes laptops have the ability to lock down the hard drive which would protect the drive from being read and formatted, but pull the drive out and it could be formatted but not read.

**paul9** · January 14th, 2012, 05:04 PM

Yes, it can still be formatted. Your encrypted data would be lost to you, of course.

**hauntedscientist** · January 14th, 2012, 08:37 PM

Thanks all. But isn't there any software even if I have to buy it,which can protect it from being formatted. Something like once a Ex.HDD/Flash has been encrypted it won't allow the ex.HDD/flash to be formatted?

Thanks

**paul9** · January 14th, 2012, 09:20 PM

The closest you would get is to use a flash memory card for storage, and set the write protect switch.
Software solutions would not work. Put a Windows protected drive on a Mac or Linux system, or even a Windows system without the protection software, and the system would not know the drive is supposed to be protected.
Using a write protect switch can also be easily overcome by a slide of the switch.
If the data is long term, perhaps a DVD would work for you?