password protected external hard drive mac

In the ensuing menu, select 'Image from Folder'.With Disk Utility open, select 'File' from the menu bar.

Once you've settled on how you want your files stored, follow these steps to lock folders with a password on your Mac: This is a good time to consider how you want to save files don't just dump everything into one large folder, use individual folders or sub-folders for better organization. First, make sure everything you want to password protect is in a folder on your Mac. See Protect your Mac information with encryption.You can password protect folder contents using macOS and Disk Utility, a built-in utility on your Mac. You can also encrypt a disk and protect it with a password without erasing it. You can encrypt your data without erasing it by turning on FileVault in Privacy & Security settings (see Encrypt Mac data with FileVault). If the Security Options button is not available, you can’t use Disk Utility to perform a secure erase on the storage device. Secure erase options are available only for some types of storage devices.

(Optional) If available, click Security Options, use the slider to choose how many times to write over the erased data, then click OK. To change the password later, select the volume in the sidebar, then choose File > Change Password. In the sidebar, select the storage device you want to encrypt.Ĭlick the Scheme pop-up menu, then choose GUID Partition Map.Ĭlick the Format pop-up menu, then choose an encrypted file system format.Įnter and verify a password, then click Choose.

If Disk Utility isn’t open, click the Launchpad icon in the Dock, type Disk Utility in the Search field, then click the Disk Utility icon. In the Disk Utility app on your Mac, choose View > Show All Devices. If the device contains any files you want to save, copy them to another storage device or volume.

Password protected external hard drive mac