An Easy Way to Password Protect an External Drive

Reader TG writes: I was wondering if there is a way to put a simple password protection to an external hard drive. It doesn't need to be top of the line, I just want to keep curious friends away from my files.

I thought this was going to be an easy question to answer, but the more I looked into it, the more I encountered password protection software that didn't work well, that was too confusing, that was too expensive, or a combination of all of these.

Finally, I have found a utility that I think will do the trick for you nicely. My only hesitation: It isn't free. But at $19, it's not only the best password protection software I tried, it's also the cheapest.

The software is called Lockngo, and it could not be simpler to use. Just download the application (here's a direct link to the free demo) and save it directly on the root of your external hard drive. There's nothing to install. Just run the program from the hard drive directly and you'll see a simple screen prompting you for a password (disabled in the demo) and offering two choices: Lock or Cancel. Click Lock and Lockngo will make all files on that drive inaccessible with the exception of itself. To unlock the drive, repeat the process and click Unlock, and all your files will appear normally. It's really that simple. Lockngo encrypts your drive using 128-bit AES. The $39 Professional version offers 256-bit security and a few extra features, but you should be fine with the $19 edition.

As noted, the demo will let you experiment with the software but won't let you use an actual password until you purchase the software. In my opinion, $19 doesn't seem too much to pay, but I'm sure there are freeware products out there that do the same thing. (Whether they are as easy to use is another question; some of these utilities are needlessly convoluted.) As always, I welcome reader suggestions for alternative utilities that get this job done. It's also worth noting that many USB thumbdrives come with password protection software preloaded. Users looking for portable, encrypted storage should definitely check out one of these.