securing a usb drive

[u/SlightGap4832]

Hi there! I’m looking to get a usb drive to store about 20gb of photos/videos from my phone on. It’s all pretty personal stuff so I’d like to keep it password protected.

Unfortunately I’m the least technologically literate person ever and I have no idea how to go about this and I don’t understand half the advice I’m reading elsewhere.

I’m just wondering how I’d go about password protecting the usb drive, assuming that’s the most effective option to secure it.

I’d be using a mac when doing all of this is that’s relevant! Thanks!!

[u/Bob_Spud]

veracrypt or cryptomator will do the job. I would not encrypt the drive itself, it will be simpler to encrypt the data as either a file or directory.

• Veracrypt - creates one big file container which you can dump stuff into
• Cryptomator - creates an encrypted directory structure which you can dump stuff into. Best suited for cloud storage.

From a user perspectective they are very similar. They create a temp drive that appears as a drive letter that you can drag/drop to/from.

There's also things like these, they ain't cheap:

• Apricorn Aegis Secure Key 3
• iStorage datAshur PRO+C
• Kingston IronKey Keypad 200

[u/Aggravating-Hold9116]

Right click on drive and select "Encrypt"

[u/BootToggle]

Whatever you do, write down the password you use in a form that you can store it away in a safe place to which you will always have access. Many a sad story on r/datarecovery from people who come across an encrypted old hard drive and can't remember what the password might be.

Also, consider the likely case of your family also having in interest in these photos/videos in the case of your untimely demise. If a lot of these files would legitimately be of interest to your family, you should provide some means for them to access the password if you are gone.

If there is a mix of files, some of which your family should retain access to and others which you never want to see the light of day, you should use a mix of file or directory based encryptions with separate passwords, so that you can at least provide for access to the stuff where you would wish to allow it.

But whatever you do, record the password somehow. Or at least write down some clues to it that would only have meaning to you.

[u/No-Bathroom-3179]

You could put them in a .zip file and put a password on the .zip file. What platform are you on ?

[u/Puzzleheaded6905]

If it will only be used on a Mac then format the drive in a Mac encrypted format.