1

I want to encrypt my external hard drive but I only want it to require a password if being accessed by a PC other than mine.

This is because I have Backblaze set-up on my own PC and if Backblaze can't get passed the encryption, it won't back up the data on the external drive. But if someone were to take the drive and try plugging it into another PC I would of course want the encryption to work so they could not access it.

I'm using Windows 8.

user
  • 29,449
  • 11
  • 99
  • 144
James M
  • 11
  • 2
  • 2
    what OS are you using ? – Devid May 19 '14 at 11:01
  • This isn't quite how encryption works. – Pockets May 19 '14 at 11:11
  • 1
    Why don't you just unlock the drive when you plug it in? – Ramhound May 19 '14 at 12:44
  • 1
    it is Windows 8. Maybe I don't understand encryption so well then.. how do lock/unlock? Will this achieve what I am after and if someone else took the drive from me they wouldn't be able to get past the lock? I do have one WD external drive that comes up with a 'lock' feature when I plug it in, but it still seems to provide access to the files whether locked or not.. – James M May 19 '14 at 13:15
  • As explained below, encryption is a process of scrambling how data is stored on the drive. If you try to read the scrambled data without un-scrambling it, you just get a bunch of gibberish. Encryption isn't something you can just "toggle" - what you're looking for is a solution to automatically decrypt data when you mount your external drive on your own Win8 PC so your Backblaze back-up doesn't run into problems when reading your external drive. – Pockets May 19 '14 at 16:35

2 Answers2

1

This article is a great starting point using Windows BitLocker. Unfortunately, BitLocker only works with Windows OSs - XP will open read only, Vista, 7 and 8 will prompt for password to unlock the drive for Read/Write. Plus, BitLocker can be set to automatically unlock a drive (not your system drive) when it is inserted into a particular computer - there is a tick box option "automatically unlock this drive on this computer".

Kinnectus
  • 10,438
  • 3
  • 28
  • 41
  • I can't comment on your original post as I don't have the required reputation. I would like to just answer your question. Encryption (in a nutshell and for your scenario) is a method of scrambling the data on your disk and only your password can allow the scrambling to be "decoded" so you can see and edit your data. Vista onwards allows you to input your password and the disk will be "unlocked" and used like a memory stick. When you "eject" the disk it is automatically "locked" again so anyone can plug it into their computer but the data can't be "decoded" unless the right password is used. – Kinnectus May 19 '14 at 14:28
  • Ah excellent, thanks for the explanation, understand how it works now. I see BitLocker is only for Windows 8.1 Pro though and I have 8.1. Don't know any alternatives do you? – James M May 19 '14 at 17:18
  • You could find a Win 7 Ultimate machine and use that to BitLocker encrypt your drive and set the password, then use it as normal on your Win 8.1 machine as this can decrypt an already encrypted drive. – Kinnectus May 19 '14 at 22:50
1

You could try using truecrypt. This is installable on nearly every OS (Windows, Linux, Mac) and you can create a desktop shortcut to a Batch script with:

start TrueCrypt.exe /q /a /lX /v "\Device\Harddisk0\Partition2" /p "myPassword"

Just replace Harddisk0\Partition2 and myPassword accordingly. On all other systems you can mount it via the password manually in TrueCrypt.

SaschaZorn
  • 59
  • 3
  • Its really easy! Just install TrueCrypt and create an encrypted Volume like its shown here http://kb.wisc.edu/page.php?id=18301 and then create a shortcut on the dektop to TrueCrypt.exe with the parameters to mount your volume. – SaschaZorn May 19 '14 at 23:30
  • Hi there. I notice TrueCrypt will delete the data on my external drive, so I'm going to wait until I have a new one to add it. Can I ask though, are you able to set it to 'trust' a machine so that it doesn't prompt for the password each time? – James M May 24 '14 at 07:34