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.įortunately, 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. 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.ĭisk encryption can take anywhere from a few seconds to an hour depending on the size, speed and amount of data on a disk. 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. OS X will then prompt you to enter a suitable password.

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…. This allows you to encrypt a volume already containing files and folders without worrying about copying them back and forth. 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). If you have a disk formatted in a more Windows-friendly format, such as ExFAT, then disk encryption won’t be possible. OS X can only encrypt volumes that are Mac-formatted with the filesystem Mac OS Extended, otherwise known as HFS+. 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. 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.

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.

Encrypt usb drive mac