I'm trying to find someway to run portable apps off a password protected USB. Of course I could go buy a usb with keyboard on it that password protects the usb but these are quite expensive.
I have portable apps loaded on a password protected USB right now that works perfect (and I've had this usb for nearly 10 years) but it's a usb 2.0 and I want to do this on a new USB 3.0 so I can take advantage of the faster speeds.
I've tried everything! Most of the encryption software requires you to have it loaded on the computer your going to use the usb flash drive on (veracript or BitLocker). I don't want this! I want to be able to use this on any computer (a friend's computer or one in a public library) which is what I can do with the usb (2.0) that I have now. I want to use this usb if I lose my phone while traveling so I still have access to my files. But a can't seem to find any software that'll create a partition on a usb where I can drop portable apps and all my files on to and still have it work any pc.
Does any know of an software that'll let me use a usb 3.0 in the same way that I've been using my old USB 2.0? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks
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Password protected usb
December 26, 2025 - 4:24pm
#1
Password protected usb
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There are a few ways to accomplish this. The first is with a PIN code flash drive. You can do it entirely without software or admin rights by using a USB drive with built in encryption and a PIN code entry on the device itself. This will work everywhere and will be compatible with everything. Something like the iStorage datAshur PRO is an example of this. We used an earlier version of this for the old PortableApps.com Carbide drives we used to sell.
The second would be with a drive with hardware encryption and software that handles the lock and unlock. These typically will show up to Windows and Mac as a hub with a CD read-only partition and a locked flash drive partition. The CD partition has software that will run without admin rights to unlock the locked flash drive partition. Something like the Kingston IronKey Locker+ would be an example of this.
The third would allow you to use any drive you'd like but will require either installing software on the local machine or require you to have admin rights to be able to install and uninstall a driver into Windows during usage. VeraCrypt will allow you to do this. It will require admin rights for the virtual encrypted drive to be mounted.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
Thanks so much John for getting back to me so quickly. The 1st and 2nd options are the ones I'm trying to avoid as they are quite expensive (although I'm being to think I wont have much of an option). Just so we're clear, I have a USB 2.0 from 10 years ago that I can plug into any windows pc. I then click on a symbol of a little key, entre a password and it lets me into the rest of the drive that has my portable apps and files loaded
in there and away I go. Surely there must some software that can emulate this on a new usb 3.0 flash drive? Thanks for time.
should be still to buy, i think.
not sure if you can also buy a sandisc without and get it free online. some come with it.
UPDATE google sandisk software or look
https://support-en.sandisk.com/app/products/downloads/softwaredownloads
i help where i can. maybe you can help me too. see in account/track
Thanks for this. I might give it a try but support for this software ended about a month ago so it's hard to say how much longer it will be usable? Any other options? Thanks.
i dont see nothing on the mentioned page and you need 'SANDISK Memory Zone'.
thats cheapest idea i know, as you mean johns devices are expensive.
i help where i can. maybe you can help me too. see in account/track
That means you have a hardware drive that supports it. You have option 2 I mentioned above. A similar USB3 drive with this runs about US$35 or so on Amazon. Example: Kingston Ironkey Locker+ 50 32GB for US$38
I forgot one option: A fingerprint reader drive like this Lexar 128GB JumpDrive Fingerprint F35 PRO for US$39
You can not make a regular USB drive do this without specialized hardware/firmware. It is technically impossible, unfortunately.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
i recommend johns linked hardware excryption solutions from his last post.
its 256bit, its to recommend.
i help where i can. maybe you can help me too. see in account/track