Files On Your Flash Drive or Computer Too Valuable?

Well look no further. You can now encrypt your flash drive or a specific location on your computer for free with this free software for Mac and PC.

You can download the software for Mac or PC here for free:

http://www.truecrypt.org/downloads

Let's say you were working in a medical facility where the clients information was extremely important. If the clients information got out to others then it would put you and your business in jeopardy. TrueCrypt solves this issue easily. It basically creates a password protected drive that has to be mounted through TrueCrypt. You then add files to and from the drive just like a regular mounted drive. To encrypt a certain space on your hard drive simply follow the steps below.

1. Open up the TrueCrypt program. You should now see this screen if you have a Mac, but the PC version essentially the exact same.

2. Now click create volume and make sure 'Create an encrypted file container is checked'. This screen should now show.

3. Click next.

4. Make sure 'Standard TrueCrypt volume' is checked. Click next.

5. Now choose where to 'save' this volume. For tutorial purposes I just chose to save the volume to my desktop. I named the volume 'Sample Test Volume'.

6. Click next.

7. Choose the 'AES' encryption algorithm and the 'RIPEMD-160' hash algorithm.

8. Click next.

9. Now choose how big you want your volume to be. It can be as large as however much space is available on your main disk.

10. Now enter the password you would like for the volume you are about to create.

11. Choose the filesystem you would like to use. FAT works for both Mac and PC and Mac OS Extended evidently only works for Mac.

12. Click Format.

13. Now you have created the volume.

Encrypt an Entire Flash Drive

1. Instead of checking off 'Create an encrypted file container', you need to check off 'Create a volume within a partition/drive'.

2. Everything is the exact same as creating an encrypted file container, but instead of creating and saving a file you are now going to choose your device (USB flash drive etc...). In doing this you will have to enter an administrator password before you can select the device. In my case I know my flash drive is approximately 955 MB, so I am going to choose that drive...

3. Continue the same as before, choosing the same algorithms.

4. Enter your password.

5. Choose either the 'FAT' or 'Mac OS Extended' file system depending on your needs.

6. Click 'Format'.

7. You have now encrypted a flash drive.

Mounting the Volume

1. Simply open up the program and go to 'Select File...' or 'Select Device...'. Browse for the volume you created or the device you encrypted. The file is located wherever you saved it and the drive is located in the exact same spot, comparing to where you clicked it before.

2. Now click 'Mount'.

3. Enter the password you created for the volume.

4. Now go to 'Finder' and it is a regular mounted drive only accessible by a password.

5. Click 'Dismount' to unmount the drive.

I hope this has been a great deal of help to those who have files that need encryption.