I just found this trough PenDriveApps.com
Rohos Mini Drive is a FREE Portable Partition Encryption tool that can be used to create a hidden partition on a USB device that is password protected. The Software doesn’t require Administrator Privileges to open the password protected USB drive partition on a guest computer. It can be run directly from a USB device [...]
It says that it doesn't need admin privileges... unfortunately, it looks like is just freeware not open source... 
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This sounds an awful lot like the V-Safe app that came bundled with my Verbatim store 'n' go. As for encryption, doesn't Toucan have that feature?
I think this is the one I looked at a while back that says you can open the file without USB privileges, but it doesn't say anything about mounting it as a drive. In other words, it is most likely just like TrueCrypt with the TCexplorer application.
MC
hey everybody,
take look here:
http://kakasoft.com/freeware.htm
michel
Just for the record, there are several programs that provide very convenient encryption of files and folders. Toucan can do it, as can 7-zip Portable, among others.
What people want, though, is "on the fly encryption", which generally involves having a whole "volume" (or virtual drive) of files that are all encrypted. They are decrypted "on the fly" for use, and encrypted back again for storage, without being stored in unprotected format even temporarily. The "on-the-fly" solutions we've seen require Admin privileges, at least to install a software driver. While this works great on computers you control, public computers should be locked down, which means this "on the fly" encryption will not be available on those computers (unless an Admin has previously installed the driver).
The problem with file and folder encryption is that you have to decrypt the file or folder -- that is, save each file or folder without protection -- in order to use it. Then when you are done with it/them, you must save the file, then encrypt changed files again, and securely delete the unprotected copies. Most people do not understand how this works, or don't want to understand it. As a result, they may think their files are encrypted, when copies of them are not. Even if software can do this automatically, if the USB drive is unplugged or the power fails, there can be unprotected files left around. The main advantage of "on the fly" encryption is that the files are never stored in unprotected form (unless a program makes a working copy somewhere outside the encrypted volume).
It is fine to mention programs that do encryption or password protect a USB drive some way, as long as people understand whether it is "on the fly" encryption, vs. a way to encrypt and decrypt files on the storage device as needed, vs. a way to make it hard to access the storage device without a password.
MC
but it needs to be tested...
If a packet hits a pocket on a socket on a port,
and the bus is interrupted as a very last resort,
and the address of the memory makes your floppy disk abort,
then the socket packet pocket has an error to report
According to this link, http://kakasoft.com/buy.htm, that freeware costs $24.95 after 30 uses.
Ed
Private disk does, the other freeware is more free than that.
MC
I like the Folder protector from Kakasoft its fast to encrypt just the folder, and u can view file in the folder then in an instant restore the encryption on just the folder. Its really a cool program. I recommend it if ur looking for fast encryption to protect ur files within a folder.
An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.
Mahatma Gandhi,
Indian political and spiritual leader (1869 - 1948)
Is there such an app that will Password Protect the USB Drive without requiring encryption?
Failure is not an option. It comes bundled with Windows.
i think u3 drives have that kind of feature, but who knows. u should search 4 something like that at Softpedia and just change the settings to also search in the description.
An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.
Mahatma Gandhi,
Indian political and spiritual leader (1869 - 1948)
I know U3 has that function but I don't have, nor do I want, a U3-enabled drive. I would be most satisfied if someone knew of a freeware app that allowed the addition of a password to removable devices without requiring encryption.
Failure is not an option. It comes bundled with Windows.
currently im searching 4 such a program, but i have had little success. Its really hard to find freeware ones. i have seen loads of sharewar programs that do this but no freeware ones.
An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.
Mahatma Gandhi,
Indian political and spiritual leader (1869 - 1948)
can you name some of the shareware apps? i dont want encryption, thats the only requirement.
Failure is not an option. It comes bundled with Windows.
here is one that i remember, Rohos and another Blue Micro ill list more when i go through my history cause i dont remember their web address.
An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.
Mahatma Gandhi,
Indian political and spiritual leader (1869 - 1948)
Failure is not an option. It comes bundled with Windows.
r u looking for something like a login key. and what platform will u be using it on.
An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.
Mahatma Gandhi,
Indian political and spiritual leader (1869 - 1948)
im looking for an app that will let me password protect my usb drive so that it cant be accessed unless a password is provided. i don't want it to use encryption so if encryption is required then its a no go. it will be ran on windows xp
Failure is not an option. It comes bundled with Windows.
Unless your UFD has "security-features" ie "public" and "private" partition in hardware IT CAN NOT BE DONE, at least not in a way that is anything else
but snake-oil . If your drive has these features using them almost always requires admin-rights with the exception of devices like "ironkey" and others that have encryption-capable controller-chips.
Furthermore, you can NOT prevent access to the data just by passwording a file,
folder or device .
The fact that you can't find one single app that "password protects" your flash-drive mentioned on this forum should tell you something .
The only one I know about (short of the "secure" thumb drives) is U3. You can use the USB password protection part of U3 without using any of the rest of it. The reason it works is that there is stuff in the firmware of a U3 drive that can deny access until you enter the password. A normal USB drive doesn't have that.
If you do it at the "drive" level without firmware support, it needs a "driver", which means Admin privileges (at least to install).
You either need a software "driver" (Admin) or it needs to be implemented in the USB drive's hardware/firmware (U3 or the "Secure" USB drives).
There are "folder lock" programs too, but they don't lock the whole drive -- that is, I don't think you can lock the "root" directory, just folders below it. That's about as close as you can come without Admin privileges, or specialized firmware.
MC
Just a quick note for anyone interested. Last time I checked these features were Windows only for my drive. Not sure if they are updated somewhere.
At least some of the high end secure USB drives have firmware that is supposed to work with any operating system. That is, it doesn't care if you are in Linux, OSX, or Windows, once you enter the pass phrase, the firmware on the drive will allow access. I don't know how they manage this magic, nor have I confirmed how well it works, but I have observed that they say it is not limited to Windows. At least the files on the drive become accessible as on any other USB storage device, once the firmware has been told the pass phrase.
MC
By "high end secure" do you mean "not U3"?
Also, could you quote which ones?
I wouldn't mind one but last time I checked none really did. The Ironkey looked good but they were still working on linux support and I think the mac support was beta. The Corsair also looked good but blocked the slot next to it and I think it only locked the drive, not encrypt it.
Most hardware vendors offer a tool with their flash drives to password protect a partition. Please refer to their sites to see if there is any support software available.
hallo
free is:
"File Encryption"
"Folder Protector" and
"ExeLock"
only
"Private Disk"
must be pay`d
this is why i post the link to the freeware:
http://kakasoft.com/freeware.htm
;))
michel
i believe that he should just use the folder protector found on that site, u have to enter a password to open the folder u set it 4, u could just make one folder put everything in it then use folder protector. I at least recommend u experiment with apps found there or on other websites, or just go and buy a usb that will do what u need.
An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.
Mahatma Gandhi,
Indian political and spiritual leader (1869 - 1948)
i took a look at Rohos Mini, and it is nothing else, then a free alternative to the drive splitting/encryption Apps that are often Bundled with the USB-Key drives.
I had such Apps for my Trkstor and the LG Drive - both Apps are very good and the APP for the LG-Drive is compatible with some other drive from other manufacturers
But i never used the encryption for some reasons. First of all, the only thing that makes sense with portable Apps is to encrypt the whole drive, so you will be prompted for your password and after you have typed in the password the drive will be decrypted, gets a windows driveletter, the autorun.inf will be analyzed and the Portable Apps menu pops.
But what i for myself have found out is that the Apps run much slower from a encrypted drive and you get in trouble if the PC for any reason not supports the encrypting tool.
On a Linux PC you have no chance to get to your personal data, even if you run the encrypting tool with wine, there is no chance (must be caused in the different ways windows and linux communicate with the Hardware.
and when you close the encrypting tool or it crashes, while you run any apps from the encrypted disk, you get in real trubble - can even lead, to loose all data in the encrypted drive.
Splitting in a public and a hidden Part makes in my eyes no sense too, cause the
drive letter of the encrypted disk is never the same - only on the PC where you have made the setup, but only then if windows havn't the drive letter given to annother device, while the keydrive was unplugged
Programms like Rohos make only sense for drives that are only used for datastorage, so you can have a public part for Musik, Installers and Linux Images for example, and a smaller, encrypted part, for personal documents, that are not for the determined for the eyes of other people if the drive gets lost.
Rohos Mini is a good alternative for people that have such an encrypting app not bundled with their drive.
Annother advantage is, that it is free and is not bound to a specific drive type or manufacturer. But okay in some cases it makes sense to fix the app to the drive type, cause the app supports some function, that only the specific drivetype provides.
But for a drive, that is used with portable Apps are the Kakasoft Apps that Michel-b suggested the better choice: the drive, it's function and its partitioning will not be touched, but you have allthough the possibility to take private documents in a safe way with you. Someone you finds the drive will only find a encrypted file on the disk, which contains your private documents but without the password he will need much tim (thousands or millison of years) to crack the encryption.
@michel-b: thanks for the link, i've searched for encrption apps like this for a long time - i will try them out to see, if it's that, hat i'm looking for
i have used rohos mini, but the main thing that i dont like is that u r limited to the size partition u can make, the max size is 300mb, which is ok if u want to encrypt pictures or some music. I really like the folder protection because after u have put a password 4 the folder, u can delete the "lockdir.exe" and your files will stay there, and u cant even tell there is anything there. Plus if someone tries to delete, copy, or anything else to the folder it denies it. oh yeah what type of usb are u using.
An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.
Mahatma Gandhi,
Indian political and spiritual leader (1869 - 1948)
by rohos, you can edit it, but I havn't tried to set it to a higher Size.
but it's compatible with the Formating and Encryption Software of my 2GB LG Drive - works fine with it, but like I said, i don't use this kind of Encryption. And to format the drive or even make it bootable, there are some other ways, than the Manufacturer-Software.
I have a USB-Flash-Drive from Trekstor called "USB-Stick ME" Came without encryption software, but has 8GB of memory :evil:
it don't works with the encryption software of my other Trekstor Drives
TrueCrypt is an open source app.
It provides encrypted mountable volumes in the same way as Rohos mini does.
It allows non-admin access using TCExplorer, just like Rohos does.
It allows encrypted volumes up to... well pretty much any size - I have a 65GB one on a USB hard drive.
It works with both Windows AND Linux (not sure about Mac, but I think there is a version)
It is free. Really free. Properly free. Not cut down, or restricted, or trial, or just not charged for.
But it all comes back to.... if you want on the fly encryption, you need administrator access. If you use file encryption, be damn sure that you understand what you are doing, and be damn careful with your data.
And any app that claims to protect your data without encrypting it is an accident waiting to happen. There are ALWAYS ways around such "protection schemes" - often pretty trivial ones. They're usually not much safer than just putting a sticky label on the drive that says "empty drive, nothing to see".
TrueCrypt has some TrueProblems:
TCExplorer isnt updated it seems. Will not work with the latest TrueCrypt.
When TrueCrypt is installed, and it has another version it might result in error warnings. (Even if you try to use the 'traveler' mode)
Because I have made a app launcher that launches from truecrypt, that only seems to work if there's no trueCrypt installed. So i need to extend the launcher to detect truecrypt running/installed and using that to open the container on USB.
And I don't know a real solution if the installed version is older than the container version. TrueCrypt traveler won't be usable then, unless the installed version is updated :/
there is a Mac version (I read that yesterday on their website) but...
I don't want an anti-FBI/CIA/KGB/Hacker/Venezuelan-government protection, I'm not hiding secret nuclear plans on my thumb drive... I just want to hide my content from people like my secretary or the stupid guy that seats at the next office (they don't even know how to unhide files and folders on windows...
)... I don't know if I ever use a computer without admin rights but I don't want to be in a situation where I can't use my Apps and Documents inside my Thumb Drive because the "super encription/military grade software" don't let me work on it because the PC rights... that's why (in my case) I'm looking for a simple but fair "security trough obscurity" solution like John says... 
U3 protection is nice, but I hate U3 (I have two 1Gb U3 drives but don't use it)...
If a packet hits a pocket on a socket on a port,
and the bus is interrupted as a very last resort,
and the address of the memory makes your floppy disk abort,
then the socket packet pocket has an error to report
LOL
Just remember to put the apps that contain login information are locked away in a decent way to avoid exposing your personal login details to anyone who finds your thumb drive if you ever lose it
Imagine you loose your thumb drive with login info in FileZilla, FireFox, etc.
even a simple password protected zip file with encryption is overkill. But even the most simple password protected solutions use encryption and thats quite strong
You could obscure a plain textfile with password info, but I strongly recommend a bit saver solution. I'm sure you'll agree.
and in fact, my Firefox portable remembers all my passwords and have every session open... also Filezilla...
... and so on...
If a packet hits a pocket on a socket on a port,
and the bus is interrupted as a very last resort,
and the address of the memory makes your floppy disk abort,
then the socket packet pocket has an error to report
This may not meet your need but an alternative may be Ironkey. IronKey is both a pass word protected USB that all so encrypts all data written to it. It does not require admin rights.
Currently however it only works on Win XP, and Vista. I was told that Windows 2000 support was planed for this year. I am waiting for that to make my own decision.
The link is: www.ironkey.com
Frank