How to password protect external hard drive without BitLocker?

There are various reasons why someone may want to password protect an external hard drive. External hard drives often contain sensitive information like financial records, personal photos, confidential business data and more. Password protecting the drive adds an extra layer of security, preventing unauthorized access to the data if the drive is lost or stolen.

While BitLocker is a popular built-in encryption tool on Windows, there are other ways to password protect an external drive for both Windows and Mac users. In this guide, we will cover alternative software solutions, encrypting folders or volumes, drive locking utilities, file permissions, and additional tips when securing an external hard drive.

When Not to Use BitLocker

BitLocker is a full disk encryption tool built into certain versions of Windows. While it provides robust protection for internal hard drives, BitLocker has some limitations when used with external hard drives:

BitLocker is designed to encrypt entire volumes and make them accessible only after providing authentication. This all-or-nothing approach may be inconvenient for external drives where you only want to protect some folders. According to Microsoft, “BitLocker is primarily designed to protect data by encrypting entire volumes” [1].

BitLocker requires either a Trusted Platform Module (TPM) chip or a USB startup key to authenticate on bootup. Most external drives lack TPM and supplying a USB key may be inconvenient. Per Microsoft, “The TPM and the USB startup key allow for pre-boot authentication.” [2].

Since BitLocker encrypts entire volumes, disk formatting options are limited on external drives. BitLocker requires drives to be formatted with either NTFS or exFAT. Other popular formats like FAT32 or ext4 are not supported.

In summary, BitLocker works great for internal system drives but has limitations for encrypting external drives. Alternative solutions may provide more flexibility.

Using Encryption Software

Encryption software allows you to encrypt specific files and folders on your external hard drive without affecting the rest of the drive. Some popular encryption options include:

AxCrypt (https://www.axcrypt.net/) – An open source encryption tool for Windows, Mac and mobile devices. AxCrypt makes it easy to encrypt, decrypt, store and send files securely. The free version has a 2GB file size limit.

Rohos Disk Encryption (https://www.rohos.com/rohos-disk-encryption/) – Provides full disk encryption for Windows with multiple encryption algorithms including AES and Twofish. Rohos offers centralized management and recovery options.

VeraCrypt (https://www.veracrypt.fr/) – An open source disk encryption tool based on TrueCrypt with added security enhancements. Supports encryption of system drives, external drives and virtual volumes.

The main advantages of encryption software are that they allow you to selectively encrypt files/folders without affecting the entire drive, many are free or low cost, and they integrate easily into Windows for simple encryption/decryption. The downside is they may not offer the same level of security as full disk encryption options.

Encrypting Specific Folders

If you only need to encrypt certain folders or files on your external hard drive, as opposed to the entire drive, you can utilize encryption directly through Windows Explorer. This method allows you to encrypt data selectively, rather than everything on the drive.

According to this SuperUser post, you can encrypt a specific folder or file by right-clicking on it, going to Properties, and selecting Advanced. Click the “Encrypt contents to secure data” box and enter a password. Encryption will only apply to that individual folder or file.

Selectively encrypting folders is ideal if you only have a few sensitive folders on the drive, and don’t need the complexity or performance overhead of full-disk encryption. It’s also useful if others need access to non-encrypted portions of the drive. Overall, it provides granular control over securing your most important data.

Creating a Veracrypt Volume

Veracrypt is a free, open-source disk encryption software that allows you to encrypt external hard drives without relying on Windows BitLocker. Veracrypt creates encrypted containers that can store folders or partitions. Here are the steps to create a Veracrypt volume on your external drive:

1. Download and install Veracrypt from the official website: https://www.veracrypt.fr/en/Downloads.html

2. Connect your external hard drive to your computer.

3. Launch Veracrypt and select “Create Volume” from the menu.

4. Select “Encrypt a non-system partition/drive” and click Next.

5. Select your external drive from the list of available drives and partitions.

6. Choose between creating an encrypted file container or encrypting the entire partition. Containers offer more flexibility but partitions encrypt everything.

7. Select your encryption and hash algorithms. The defaults (AES and SHA-256) offer robust security.

8. Choose a strong 20+ character password and select Next.

9. Move your mouse around randomly to generate encryption keys.

10. Format the partition/container and setup your Veracrypt volume.

Once setup, you can mount your Veracrypt volume and it will appear as a new drive. You can store sensitive files by moving them to this encrypted drive.

The key benefits of using Veracrypt are strong AES-256 bit encryption, decentralized open-source code audited by experts, and cross-platform support for Windows, Mac, and Linux. Veracrypt is easy to use while providing robust security comparable to enterprise solutions.

Using a Password Manager

A password manager is a useful tool for securely storing passwords for all your accounts and devices, including encrypted external hard drives. Popular password managers include 1Password, LastPass, and Bitwarden.

Password managers allow you to generate strong, unique passwords for each account. The passwords are securely encrypted and stored in a vault that is unlocked with a master password. This means you only have to remember one strong master password to access all your other passwords.

To store an encrypted external hard drive password in a password manager, simply add it as a new login entry, with the hard drive name or serial number as the account name. The password field will contain the encryption password for the drive. This allows you to access the password from any device where you install the password manager app.

The main benefit of using a dedicated password manager over a basic document or spreadsheet is that your drive passwords are securely encrypted. Password managers also include features like password generation, auto-fill, and automatic syncing across devices. So you can easily access your drive passwords from anywhere.

Enabling Drive Locking

Many external hard drives have built-in locking capabilities that allow you to password protect the drive without needing any additional software. This is an easy way to add a layer of security.

To enable drive locking, refer to the user manual for your specific external hard drive model. Often, you can activate locking by fliping a physical switch or toggling a setting in the drive’s software utility. For example, WD My Passport drives have a “Use password protection and hardware encryption” option that can be enabled through the WD Security software [1].

Once locking is enabled, you will be prompted to create a password whenever connecting the drive. The drive will remain inaccessible until the correct password is entered. This prevents unauthorized access.

The advantage of using native drive locking is that the encryption and password protection works independently of your operating system or any additional software. The limitation is that it only secures that specific external drive. Still, it provides a quick way to add a layer of security.

Using Permissions and Sharing

You can restrict access to your external hard drive by setting native permissions and sharing options in your operating system.

Windows

On Windows, you can deny permissions to the drive for other users or groups. Open the drive properties, go to the Security tab, edit permissions and deny access as desired. This will prevent unauthorized users from accessing the drive. See this SuperUser post for detailed instructions.

Mac

On Mac, you can disable sharing access in System Preferences. Go to Sharing, select the drive and uncheck “Share files and folders using SMB”. You can also right-click the drive, select Get Info, and disable options like “Ignore ownership on this volume” to restrict permissions. See this EaseUS guide.

Linux

On Linux, use chmod to modify permissions for the drive mount point. For example, “chmod 700 /media/drive” would restrict access to just the owner. You can also edit /etc/fstab to mount the drive with specific permissions. See the chmod and fstab man pages for more details.

Additional Security Tips

After enabling drive encryption and locking, you should take additional steps to secure your external hard drive:

Make sure to enable encryption after locking the drive to protect your data if the drive is disconnected or stolen. Encryption converts data to unreadable ciphertext that requires the correct key or password to access (source).

Carefully store any recovery keys in a safe, separate location like a password manager or physical safe. Losing recovery keys could make your encrypted data permanently inaccessible (source).

Other best practices include using strong, complex passwords, avoiding auto-mounting, physically securing the drive when not in use, keeping firmware updated, and making regular backups. Following security best practices will help protect sensitive data stored on an external drive (source).

Conclusion

In this guide, we covered several methods for password protecting an external hard drive without using BitLocker, including encryption software, folder encryption, creating a Veracrypt volume, password managers, drive locking, file permissions, and other tips.

The most secure option is to use full disk encryption software like Veracrypt to create an encrypted volume. This encrypts all data on the drive and requires a password to access it. For maximum security, you can also use a long complex password and enable multiple encryption algorithms.

Password protecting your external drive is important to secure sensitive data from unauthorized access. But you don’t necessarily need expensive or complex solutions like BitLocker. The methods in this guide provide alternatives that balance security, cost and convenience based on your specific needs. Take steps to backup important data as well.

By understanding these options, you can find a password protection method that fits your requirements whether you use Windows, Mac or Linux. Secure your external drives properly to keep your data safe.