Sep 17, 2012  The encryption process can be very quick for smaller drives like USB keys and SD cards, but can take quite a while for large external hard drives used for backups or personal data. Be prepared to wait a bit for anything larger than a few GB in size, as the general encryption-to-GB time ratio seems to be about 1GB per minute. How to encrypt/password protect external hard drive for Mac and Windows PC usage? As far as we know, there are many cross platform encryption solutions (such as TrueCrypt), but BitLocker is more secure than other drive encryption software.

• External Hard Drive Encryption Software Mac Pro
• External Hard Drive For Mac And Pc
• Mac Encrypt External Drive
• Best Hard Drive Encryption Software
• Best External Hard Drives For Mac

Jun 08, 2020 • Filed to: Solve Mac Problems • Proven solutions

An external hard drive is just a storage device that is connected to your computer on the outside. Standard Hard drives draw power from their data source cable, which comes from the system itself. Some advanced disks may require an AC connection to derive power on their own. These storage devices come in varying storage capacities, but they all connect to a computer either by USB, eSATA or wirelessly.

Plug and play functionality offers system compatibility and offers extensive storage options and portable design for the consumer. These memory devices are compatible with both Mac and Windows PC. These disks provide capacities ranged from 250 GB to 10 TB.

Compatibility issues between Windows and MacOS may have reduced over the years, but that doesn’t mean they’ve been completely wiped out. Sharing files from Windows to Mac is a demoralizing task, but in this article, we will discuss how to overcome such issues as there are various methods to do such that. Also, external hard drive file recovery will be mentioned.

Part 1. Situations Where to Share External Drive Between Mac and Windows

Many MacOS and Windows users today find themselves in mixed platform offices, where they need to share files and work on them. Sharing stuff between PCs and Macs is not as nearly simple as it should be. There are different ways for your computer systems to talk to each other and share files. The main problem occurs because each operating system supports a different set of data sharing protocol, think of them as different computer languages. We will discuss some of them in this section:

• FTP (File Transfer Protocol): It is one of the well-known data sharing systems. If you've ever spent any time on the internet, then you know that FTP is one of the most convenient options for sharing stuff between your Mac and PC.
• NFS (Network File System): It is a file sharing protocol that the Unix-based systems like to use for sharing files, which both Windows and Macs can understand. It is more popular on the Windows PC side of the fence.
• AFP (Apple Filing Protocol): It is only designed for MacOS. Windows do not understand it. But from Mac-to-Mac, it's what makes sharing extremely easy. The problem occurs when you intend to use an AFP disk drive on a Windows PC.

Fortunately, there are many methods to fix such a problem. One of it is that you can perform “partition” on your computer’s primary hard drive. You can divide the HDD of your Windows PC into different sections with different rules, storage space, and functions.

You can also perform a partition on the main drive of Mac so that part of it works during the file sharing process. Both Windows and Mac have the essential tools to help in performing partition for your External hard drives. Here we will discuss how to do disk partition on Mac and Windows computers.

Part 2. Formatting an External Hard Disk Drive From a Mac:

To put in simple words, if you want to share the external hard drive between Macintosh and Windows PC, you need to format an external hard drive for the respective system.

Hard drives for Windows PC are formatted with NTFS by default, while hard disks for Mac are formatted with HFS+. However, when we connect an NTFS formatted disk to Mac, Mac OS X doesn't support it and would not allow to write files to the drive. It also disables the ability to edit the pre-existing data in the drive. MacOS offers the user to read an NTFS drive. Windows OS will similarly ask you to format the HFS+ formatted drive when you connect such a disk to its PC. Creating a partition on the disk is the best option. Follow the step-by-step guide to partition the drive on a Mac.

• Open Disk Utility on your Mac. Select the icon of Disk Utility by searching for it in Search in the upper right-hand corner of the screen.
• Locate and select the hard drive you want to partition.
• Select the Partition option.
• If you intend to format the entire drive, then you can perform the procedure by clicking on Erase.
• Select the Erase Free Space option to format the disk.
• Specify the number of partitions on the external hard drive you want to create by entering the information in the partition column.
• Enter the name and size of each newly formed partition of the drive. Please specify the details to proceed further.
• It is recommended that you set the drive into two parts, one partition dedicated to the Mac and other for the Windows PC.
• Select the format for the Mac portion as MacOS Extended (Journaled).
• Select the Windows part as ExFAT. This format allows the drive to store a large amount of data.

It is recommended that you select the default option of GUID Partition. It is usually optimal with an external hard drive, as long as you don’t intend to create a bootable drive out of it to install an operating system.

• Once you are done with all of the process mentioned above, click on Apply.
• A warning pop-up will appear, click on Partition.

The partition process of your external hard disk drive on the Mac will finish. You will able to check exFAT format by plugging the drive onto a Windows PC nearby.

See and.For more information about the options for each type of user, click the Help button in the lower-left corner of the dialog.Enter a full name for the new user. An account name is generated automatically.

Part 3. Formatting an External Hard Disk Drive From a Windows PC:

Partitioning is an act of splitting a drive into pieces, and it is important to set at least one partition to store data and a pre-set-up folder.

There are many reasons why one would want to create a partition on their external drive. You should save some of the space for general file storage; data that you might need later, and the other to store backups of your most important files. You also may want an encrypted portion of a drive for private files. You may even want to put your media files like videos in one partition and photos and documents in another to speed up searches.

You can also create a bootable portion of the drive to install a different operating system on computers; you’ll need to partition part of a drive for the OS. Formatting and creating a partition on an external hard drive is complicated in the Windows operating system. In this section, we will learn how to format an external HDD from a Windows computer.

• Click on the Start menu to open Windows Disk Management.
• Type diskmgmt.msc in the search bar.
• Click on Create and Format Hard disk partitions.
• Disk Management window will appear.
• Click on Disk 1.
• Format the drive if you haven’t already. Formatting the disk is essential before partitioning it.
• Right-click on Disk 1 option.
• Click on Format.
• Click on Initialize Disk.
• A new window will open, asking you to select a partition style for your disk.
• Select the GPT format; it is supported by all the external hard disk drives.
• Click on OK.
• You will notice a drive listed as unallocated.
• Right-click on the unallocated drive and click on New Simple Volume. It will initiate the New Simple Volume Wizard.
• Click on Next.
• Specify the size and name of the Volume.
• Select exFAT as the file system.
• Create this partition in conjunction with the Mac device you want to use the drive on.
• Click on Next.
• Click on Finish.
• Repeat the process and set the file system for the other volume as NTFS, to use the drive in conjunction with the Windows PC.

By following the methods above, creating partitions on the external hard disk will now seem pretty straightforward. You know how to set up the drive on any operating system, and it will take just a little bit of time.

Part 4. How to Recover Data from a Formatted Hard Drive?

The hard drive is a complex piece of storage device, and, commonly, even a slight bit of negligence can lead to loss of essential data. You should not save any new information on the formatted hard drive, or it will be completely overwritten.

• Reasons Why Data get Erased on a Portable Hard Drive:

In this section, we will discuss some of the factors why your data can get deleted. Some of those reasons are mentioned below:

• The Virus can enter the Hard drive when you insert it into some virus infected computer.
• Neglecting any sort warnings after inserting the drive on to the system
• Not properly removing the storage device from the computer.
• Preparations before data recovery:

Before starting the recovery process, you should follow the necessary precautions listed below to avoid any inconvenience:

• You need to Plug your External hard disk drive with the computer.
• Directly Insert the drive in the USB port on your computer.
• Do not Remove the external hard disk from the computer, during the recovery scan.
• Maintain the Backup of essential media before the recovery procedure.

You can recover your data by using a data recovering software like Recoverit Data Recovery by Wondershare. The tool provides a high recovery rate of 96%. It allows to connect almost every type of portable devices like the memory card or USB and recovers data from them.

It recovers documents and photos from all type of file formats which includes: Docx, pages, JPEG, PNG, GIF, avi, MP3, MPEG exFAT, FAT, HFS, NTFS, and much more. Follow our step-by-step guide for the solution of your Data recovery problem.

1. Select the Location of the External Drive:

After launching the Recoverit Mac data recovery software, follow these steps:

• Select the “External Drive Location” where data was deleted or lost.
• Click 'Start' button to initiate the process.

2. Scanning for Lost Data:

• Data scanning will start in Recoverit.
• A scan completion pop up will appear on the screen.
• The scanning time depends a lot on the size of your Hard drive. The larger the file, longer the time it will take to finish the scan.

3. Recover the Lost Data:

• The recovered files will be sorted by the File Path and File Type on the Recoverit window.
• Select the file you want to view and hit the Preview button
• Click on the 'Recover' button after checking the authenticity of the data.

Part 5. How to Encrypt your External Hard Drive:

In this day and age, data protection is essential. It is necessary to encrypt your portable storage devices to ensure safety. It will prevent individuals to hack into your files. In this section, we will discuss how to protect your drives and folders on both MacOS and Windows PC.

• Encryption on MacOS:
• Press Command + Shift + A to open the Applications folder on your Mac.
• Open Utilities.
• Click on Disk Utility.
• Click on View.
• Click on Show all Devices.
• Select the External Drive that you want to encrypt.
• Click on Erase.
• Choose the GUID Partition Map and Format the drive.
• Choose Mac OS Extended (Journaled, Encrypted) as the encrypted file format. You can also change to a Windows supported format like exFAT.
• Enter and verify a password.
• Click on Choose.
• Click on OK.
• Your drive will be Encrypted.
• Encryption on Windows PC:

Encrypting a file or drive on a Windows PC is simple. Follow the steps below to enable the option:

• Click on This PC.
• Right-Click on the drive that you want to encrypt.
• Click on Turn on BitLocker.
• Check the option ‘ Use a Password to Unlock the Drive.’
• Enter and verify your Password.
• Click on Next.
• Save the password to your Microsoft Account or a USB.
• Click on Next.
• Choose Encrypt Entire Drive.
• Choose New Encryption Mode and click on Next.
• Click on Start Encrypting

Closing Words:

Having to share and edit different files across several platforms can be unavoidable in some situations. That is the case when you need to open an external hard drive on your Mac or Windows PC. This article will help you in dealing with this kind of issues. It is essential to create a back up for your files and save the data in before performing the partition and formatting the external disk. You can freely use the method for both the MacOS and Windows OS. If in any case, your data is formatted or lost, then you can quickly recover the formatted disk data by using Recoverit Recovery Software. It guarantees hassle-free data recovery in no time.

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A technique such as encryption is getting so much attention and tremendous positive response due to the hindrance it has created for the unwanted intrusions. Whether it is your PC, Hard drive or flash drive, all these belongings with your sensitive data could be protected through encryption, and that is what makes it popular among all individuals. Hard drive encryption is a similar recommendation for you to enhance your data safety.

What Is Hard Drive Encryption?

Hard drive encryption is merely an implementation of standard encryption methods to a drive to enhance its protection. Through such an encrypting procedure, the data stored in the hard drive is converted into a secure unreadable coded form.

Drive encrypting software makes it impossible for any unauthorized entity to access your encrypted data without the appropriate password.

This drive encryption software is divided into three main categories: software-based, hardware-based within the storage device, and hardware-based elsewhere. To achieve this level of protection on your device, you need to spend some dollars to get high-end protection. Full disk encryption has several benefits as compared to a regular file or folder encryption or encrypted vaults.

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Why You Need Hard Drive Encryption?

Before you opt to encrypt the whole Drive on your system, you must know how it benefits you and why you need an internal hard drive or portable hard drive encryption.

• Almost all the files on the system including the swap space and the temporary files are encrypted. This is very important because such records are prone to reveal some important and confidential data.
• When you have encrypted the whole drive, then you don’t need to worry about any file or folder that is confidential and left unencrypted, or you might forget some data to be encrypted, etc. The Whole internal or portable hard drive encryption mechanism ensures complete drive protection with just a password or encryption key.
• If you lose your system due to any unwelcome or sudden reasons like theft or machine failure, then your saved files are not accessible by anyone even after it is repaired. Therefore, even if you trash your system, you don’t need to worry about the sensitive data you have stored in the system.

Methods Of Drive Encryption

Internal or USB hard drive encryption can be done by various software, and there are many tools in the market. Whenever a file is written and stored on the drive, it is automatically encrypted by specialized software. However, when a file is read from the drive, the software automatically decrypts that file while the rest of the data remains encrypted.

The encryption and decryption processes are the same for all typical applications. In many versions of Windows, for example, Windows 10 has device encryption feature enabled which usually runs in the background without letting the users even know, but it requires specific hardware to activate and requires an encryption password key to access the whole system and its data.

Full Hard Drive Encryption

The entire encryption of your hard drive is most appropriate and useful way to encrypt your hard drive. This method is most recommended because it protects you against an unwanted risk that could occur due to human errors such as forgetting to encrypt a particular file.

Along with this, the complete hard drive encryption makes sure to encrypt temporary files and swipe space. That means everything on the hard drive remains safe and secure. Yet, a bit negative impact is that the full hard drive encryption makes your system processing slow. However, due to the advent of modern processors, this is not an issue anymore. Therefore, we have described the easy ways to encrypt your entire hard drive.

Encrypting Certain Files And Folders Of Hard Drive

If you are unwilling to have full hard drive encryption, then there is another option for encrypting individual files only. This kind of encryption might have a less impact on the performance of your system, but it is a bit complicated process. While encrypting only specific files or folders on your hard drive, you need more time to figure out important data that should be protected.

However, there are few ways to encrypt individual files and folders;

• The users of Microsoft Office can encrypt, and password protects the files on their system. Yet, the level of encryption become more advanced with the upgraded version of the official program.
• The method of encryption is straightforward on Windows using the encrypting file system. Right-click a particular folder or file you want to encrypt, click properties and then click Advanced.
• On Mac, Disk Utility could be used to encrypt single files and folders.

Lock BIOS Via Password

To encrypt the hard drive, there is another option to lock the BIOS (primary input-output system). You could implement specific settings for computer’s hardware and could even control the loading of the computer system through the BIOS system.

App switcher windows 10. Learn more about what your Mac computer can do for you at the Intego New Mac User Center: About Craig GrannellCraig Grannell is a technology writer, mostly specialising in Macs, iOS, apps, and games.

If you secure the hard drive with a password in BIOS, then the hard drive will remain locked even when the drive is entered into a new PC other than the present one. Just the password code could unlock the hard drive and it is needed every time you switch on the drive.

Hard Drive Encryption On Windows 10

Windows 10 has a complicated mechanism of encryption, like its previous versions Windows 10 doesn’t have the encryption capability in its “Core” or “Home” editions. If you need to integrate internal or portable hard drive encryption in Windows 10, you need to pay for the “Enterprise” or “Professional” versions of Windows 10 or only use a third-party encryption solution.

Drive Encryption feature is auto-enabled by Microsoft in some of the latest Windows 10 editions which makes sure that you are login to your Windows by Microsoft account. This is because it only actually encrypts your drive if you sign in to Windows with a Microsoft account. Your recovery key or password is then uploaded to Microsoft’s cloud servers. This will help you recover your data if you lose access to your PC. To check whether it is enabled on your device or not you have to perform some simple steps:

• Open the “Settings” app in Windows 10 and navigate to “System”.See the About page and look for a “Device encryption’’ setting below the window.
• If you don’t see any device encryption option, then your system doesn’t support Device Encryption feature. There are more chances that, you may not have BitLocker feature as well.So if you don’t meet either of the above-mentioned requirements then you can spend some dollars to get a third-party software to achieve drive encryption on your system.
  Hard Drive Encryption By BitLockerIf your Windows version does have BitLocker as a built-in feature then you can protect your drive by the following steps:Windows 7
  • Go to Control Panel of Windows 7
  • Choose System and Security
  • BitLocker Drive Encryption
  • Or just right click on the device and select Turn on BitLocker
  • Setup your password to encrypt the hard drive

Windows 10

• Go to “Setting” app
• Select “System” option
• Go to “About” pane
• Select ‘’Bitlocker settings’’ to enable this feature.
• Select the password to encrypt your hard drive.

Portable Hard Drive Encryption

We all love to have a portable data storage device because of its convenience and portability. However, it can also be a disadvantage if we lose our external portable drive (USB flash drive) which is very common and can also be stolen easily creating immense panic among the victims.

Therefore, you should always be prepared even for the worst case and learn how to encrypt data on external and portable hard drive. You need an encryption software to encrypt files on USB flash drive. Below we have discussed some of the top encryption tools which are also used for external drive encryption.

Veracrypt (Windows, OS X, Linux)

If you are looking for a free and most popular successor of Truecrypt then Veracrypt is the right choice for you. VeraCrypt supports AES encryption, TwoFish, and Serpent encryption ciphers support the creation of hidden, encrypted volumes within other volumes.

AxCrypt (Windows)

AxCrypt is a free, simple, efficient and easy-to-use software which is an open source, GNU GPL-licensed encryption tool for Windows. Encrypting a file or a whole folder is very simple with AxCrypt. You just need one right click and can select files or folders to be encrypted.

External Hard Drive Encryption Software Mac Pro

You can also schedule a limited time encryption of some certain files or folder by using the “timed’’ feature of it. Also a duration could be set and after the duration expires it will be decrypted itself. It provides so much ease with files remaining decrypted while they are in use and becomes auto-encrypted when stop using. It supports 128-bit AES encryption only.

DiskCryptor (Windows)

Diskcryptor is an open-source program and it supports windows Servers, Desktop, and Laptops alike. It supports 256-bit encryption and complex system configurations like RAID.

GNU Privacy Guard (Windows/OS X/Linux)

GNU Privacy Guard is an open source encryption software which supports multiple encryption types and ciphers. It is generally capable of encrypting individual files one at a time, disk images, and volumes, or external drives and connected media.

7-Zip (Windows/OS X/Linux)

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7-Zip is a lightweight and easy to use file archive software for Windows. It’s completely free, even for commercial use, supports 256-bit AES encryption and needs just a click to encrypt multiple files with the encryption key.

Hard Drive Encryption On Mac OS X

Mac Encrypt External Drive

Follow these simple steps to encrypt the drive on your Mac OS X and enhance your data protection level;

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• Go to the Apple menu and select System Preferences.
• Now click the Security & Privacy icon in the System Preferences window.
• Then click the FileVault tab and click the lock icon and enter an administrator name and password.
• Now click the Turn On FileVault button and don’t forget to keep your recovery key and password safe.

Conclusion

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Encryption has now become a successful method to protect you from many potential threats and risks. It is an effective way to enhance data safety and to keep it away from the access of data snoopers who are always in search of your personal data. Therefore, always make sure that your devices are encrypted so that they couldn’t be negatively used if lost or stolen.