I am about to go out and get a 4 to 6 gig usb pocket HD. I have a usb drive with U3 and am looking for something that can password protect the drive so you cannot even access it like the U3 app. is there anything out there that will do that?
Also which is better a portable pocket hd or another usb drive? im looking for the best performance since i run a lot of apps from it.
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So I was looking around and did find a program for a pocket HD or any portable device. Its called Lockngo http://www.keynesis.com/products/ I have just purchased it and it runs great it was exactly what I was looking for. Also i must say that i have a 12 gig pocket HD and it takes about 15 seconds to lock and unlock the drive.
From their website you need administrator rights to use it, same as TrueCrypt and other similar products. This precludes using it on many public PCs.
I'm trying to put a good portable apps system together as I'm going to be on the road for some time. I will have a laptop for picture editing but for internet access from public machines where I'll be doing banking, email etc I'd like to use a key drive or possibly my portable HD and keep my passwords, favourites and data really secure. From your reply, I understand that programs like Lockngo (I was considering RoboForm2Go) have drawbacks so what would you suggest?
for Yadadisk, this works well, and doesn't require Admin rights.
I've also asked the guys there to see if they can upgrade to AES 256 bit from 128
Definately worth looking at though.
http://www.yadabyte.com/
Yadadisk has said "Temporartily Unavailable" months now. At least as long as I've known of its existence, in fact. I've been using Remora USB Disk GUard instead, and it works fairly well, though it also only has 128 bit encryption.
http://www.shareup.com/Remora_USB_Disk_Guard-download-33691.html
The site does say temporarily unavailable, however, I noticed the format for all their downloads are similar so I copied the link to another Yadabyte program such as "passwords" and changed the zip file name to YadabyteDisk.zip and YadabyteDiskSource.zip and was able to download the files...
In case anyone wants to do that.
I figure there's probably a good reason it was taken down. I seem to remember reading about a problem encrypting read-only files, but don't quote me on that, it's a very vague memory.
YadaByte can encrypt read-only files but the next step is to delete the origianl which, of course, fails because it's read-only. But as someone pointed out just make sure that no files on the drive are read-only and there is no problem.
Like that, you'll only have the source code. Here's the full app (I just wa luky, I guessed the right number. Now I must avoitd "I'm lucky" on google for at least a week, I've just been too lucky)
http://www.yadabyte.com/Yadabyte_Portables.php?download=56
I just tried to download Yadabyte Disk and I discovered this link
http://www.yadabyte.com/Yadabyte_Portables.php?download=56
let's what it is capable of...
"What about Love?" - "Overrated. Biochemically no different than eating large quantities of chocolate." - Al Pacino in The Devils Advocate
For simple file encryption I keep going back to bcarchive ( www.jetico.com ). It looks like a regular folder so you can
-go into the folder
-double-click a file
-it decrypts the file into memory and opens the default application
-when you close the application the file file is automatically encrypted and put back into the folder.
As I understand it, bcarchive will never put a decrypted copy of the file on the hard disk or USB drive.
It only decrypts the selected file(s) whereas something like Yadabyte Disk encrypts/decrypts the whole drive, even if you only want to change a single file.
You can have folders inside an archive.
The files inside don't have a standard path so you cannot use Explorer to browse to the files nor could you put define it as a data directory for an application.
Please note that bcarchive saves unencrypted temp files to the hard drive when you try to view those files from within bcarchive. They are saved to the following directory.
C:\Documents and Settings\"User Name"\Local Settings\Temp
bcarchive claims that it deletes them securely, however it does not wipe the file names. I have been able to find them using an undelete tool. However, I have not been able to recover the data. I don't know how securely bcarchive wipes the data, but I would not use it in a shared computer. I only use it at home because I can wipe out the data on the empty section of my hard drive. I keep records of my financial data encrypted. I am want to make sure that it stays that way if my computer gets stolen.
That's what I get for listening to their hype.
The search continues for an encryption solution that:
- is open source, although the right closed source app might be acceptable
- doesn't require administrator rights
- doesn't leave any traces on the PC
- can encrypt one or more folders. For the time it takes, there's little sense encrypting all the open source applications on a drive when all that really needs to be encrypted is your data files.
Actually a command line that works on a single folder would be OK as multiple command lines could be put in a batch file. Maybe EncryptOnClick deserves another look?
- anything I'm forgetting?
with the next version of PUSS I am adding a command line interface, maybe this will do what you want?
Yours
Steve Lamerton
Good luck with your search. Please post here if you find anything.
I own two SanDisk Cruzers (512 MB and 2 GB) and I use their CruzerLock encryption utility. The interface is not as good as bcarchive, but it does the job. It still has to store temporary files into the hard drive (same directory as bcarchive). However, the files are stored inside a temporary directory. Although you can see the directory with an undelete tool, you cannot see the file names since the directory cannot be recovered.
The good news is that there is generic version that works on other USB drives (and your hard drive as well), called "SecurDataStor" (http://www.encryptx.com/eCommerce/products.php) The bad news is that it is a comemrcial program, although the price is not unreasonable ($40).
For a free program, you can also try Remore USB Guard (http://www.richskills.com/products/6/freeversion.asp). The only problem is that the free version only supports 128 bit encryption. The commercial version costs $20.
Actually I'm just looking for something that will password-protect the drive itself. I don't care as much about the contents.
Is there something out there that will do it that doesn't affect the hard drive?
... Unless you want a dummy protection that will not work unless you start the protecting program, that's located on the key ^^. So unless you want anybody with a year of experience under windows to prevent your protecting program to start (by pressing shift, if you have an autorun on the key), and access your data without limitation...
Well either put some money in a hardware-side protected key, which will be expensive, either choose to protect all your data. The program I suggested just above seems to be what you need, although I haven't tested it yet...
Greetz
--
jahvascriptmaniac