This installer - WD Drive Utilities and WD Security, are contained within the WD Drive Utilities and the WD Security zip files and installs custom Western Digital software for WD USB and FireWire enabled external hard drives under Macintosh computers.
Whether you’re using an external hard drive for backup purposes or to provide additional storage for your Mac, it’s important to make sure that whatever information it contains is as secure as possible. By default, an external hard drive can be accessed on any other Mac without hinderance, so even if you have FileVault 2 enabled on your Mac but you’re backing up to an unencrypted hard drive, it’s rather redundant. OS X can encrypt volumes located on external hard drives and USB sticks in just a few clicks, making it impossible to view the contents of a volume on any Mac unless the correct password is provided. Supported Filesystems OS X can only encrypt volumes that are Mac-formatted with the filesystem Mac OS Extended, otherwise known as HFS+. If you have a disk formatted in a more Windows-friendly format, such as ExFAT, then disk encryption won’t be possible. Encrypting a volume using the Finder The Finder includes a built-in option to enable (and disable) disk encryption on a volume without first needing to reformat it, provided it’s Mac-formatted to begin with (see above). This allows you to encrypt a volume already containing files and folders without worrying about copying them back and forth.
With a suitable Mac-formatted disk connected to your Mac, right-click the volume within the Finder’s Sidebar or on the Desktop and select Encrypt volume name. OS X will then prompt you to enter a suitable password. You can either specify your own or use the small 🔑 icon to bring up OS X’s Password Assistant to randomly generate one for you. Finally, disk encryption requires a password hint be provided since forgetting it will mean you can no longer access any of the data the volume might contain, and there’s no amount of data recovery that can bypass this. Disk encryption can take anywhere from a few seconds to an hour depending on the size, speed and amount of data on a disk. A near-empty 32GB USB 2.0 stick took only a few seconds but a 1TB USB 3.0 drive that’s almost full might take considerably longer. Fortunately, OS X still provides access to the volume so you can keep reading and writing data to it though you’ll find you won’t be able to eject it until it’s completed.
If you’re planning to do this on a portable Mac, make sure you’re in a position where it isn’t going to run out of power and can be left running until it’s finished, so starting it at the airport just before you’re about to board isn’t going to be the best place to do this. Decrypting a volume using the Finder If you decide that the volume you’re using no longer needs to be encrypted, it can be decrypted just as simply. Right-click it within the Finder’s Sidebar or on the Desktop and select Decrypt volume name. You’ll be required to enter the password for the encrypted volume again, even if it’s mounted, before OS X will disable encryption. After that, the volume will decrypt.
Again, this process can take some time on larger and slower disks so plan accordingly. What about Disk Utility? Rather surprisingly, Disk Utility is pretty bad at dealing with disk encryption. For example, the Finder includes a one-click option to enable or disable disk encryption. In Disk Utility, the option is never available and seems to be permanently disabled. Disk Utility can be used to format a disk and enable encryption at the time, though it offers no benefit over just formatting a drive normally and then using OS X to encrypt it using the above steps.
I don’t see any reason to use Disk Utility over the Finder when it comes to encrypting a disk.
We can lock our phones, our cars, and our computers, but did you know that you can secure your flash drive, too? USB flash drive encryption is a simple way to ensure your private data remains protected. Encryption is a method for restricting access to your flash drive either by software or hardware installed on the drive that requires a key to unlock. The function of many USB drives in today’s Internet centric market is to offer cold data storage, which does not require an internet connection to provide access to your data and is generally thought of as more secure from virtual attacks.
Flash drives are attractive options for people who need ready access to their business documents on the go without an internet connection or need sizable data capacity on hand. The unfortunate reality of flash drives is that they can be physically lost or stolen, and so it is therefore extremely important to protect your valuable information. There are plenty of anecdotes of foolish travelers who put their whole lives on one drive only to lose it and expose all their vulnerable data. Software Encryption for your USB Drive You can easily buy USB drives with encryption hardware; these drives utilize a chip that offers automatic and invisible encryption. Quite often these drives utilize a physical pin pad to enter a pin code and many come with other security features such as automatic overwrites in the event of too many pass code errors.
Due to these factors, they tend to be on the higher side of pricing compared to normal drives but like most popular tech, prices are falling. Amazon offers a simpler model from Kingston at 3.0 USB speed for only $24 but you can easily see fancier and more luxurious models and brands rocketing upwards to around $90. Unfortunately, hardware encrypted USB drives are not immune to failure. Most large brand name OEMs, including SanDisk, Kingston, Verbatim, and Trek have turned out drives that have failed security standards.
To our knowledge, these security flaws have been remedied. On the other hand, software encrypted USB drives are as cheap as whatever drive you use is. Encryption software is inexpensive, if not free, and often is included with desktop platforms. They perform just as well as hardware encrypted drives do, provided the platform you plug into supports the software installed on your drive and you aren’t careless with your pass code. The downside is that it takes a little bit of time to encrypt them yourself, you can’t use it on a computer that doesn’t use the same software, and if you’re not tech savvy you may not feel confident doing it yourself. Our included steps to encrypting your own USB drive are just the boost you need!
Kingston DataTraveler Locker - Image by In the end, both options offer security without reducing functionality of your drive but it becomes a matter of what works best for you and your needs. Software encryption is cheaper and often performs just as well, but is prone to potential issues like software issues and user error. Hardware encryption is less prone to user error and is often more reliable in performance, but is expensive in comparison.
If you’ve decided to go the software route, we’ve included some handy steps to creating your very own encrypted USB drive below. Steps There are many ways to encrypt a flash drive yourself but they all essentially boil down to the same steps: installing software, enabling it, and locking it with a decryption code. We’ve included steps for both PC and MAC computers.
![Usb secure for mac format Usb secure for mac format](/uploads/1/2/5/5/125522157/147738362.png)
Windows For a PC running Windows, we’ll show you how to use BitLocker (included software in Windows operating systems 7 and above) and another popular program, VeraCrypt. You will need: A blank USB drive, a computer with BitLocker installed, and some time. To encrypt using BitLocker:. Connect blank USB drive; if it’s not blank, then move data from it. Open your File Explorer and find your USB drive on the left (usually named after manufacturer).