The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    Easy encryption

    Discussion in 'Windows OS and Software' started by squelchy451, Aug 13, 2010.

  1. squelchy451

    squelchy451 Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    9
    Messages:
    104
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    Hi

    I have a laptop and an external hard drive.

    How can I password-protect / encrypt sensitive data? (i'm not talking about pr0n btw)

    Thx!
     
  2. sama98b

    sama98b Notebook Evangelist

    Reputations:
    40
    Messages:
    435
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    truecrypt ^^
     
  3. 6730b

    6730b Notebook Deity

    Reputations:
    1,290
    Messages:
    803
    Likes Received:
    1,744
    Trophy Points:
    156
    For single files and directories, AxCrypt ?
     
  4. J&SinKTO

    J&SinKTO Notebook Deity

    Reputations:
    107
    Messages:
    767
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    Concur - AxCrypt - simple and effective
     
  5. GoodBytes

    GoodBytes NvGPUPro

    Reputations:
    742
    Messages:
    3,108
    Likes Received:
    1
    Trophy Points:
    106
    2 methods:

    Method #1:
    You can use Windows built-in encryption system (Vista/Win7 only), which encrypts your files with your account password and a generated certificate which Windows will ask you to backup EXTERNALLY, so that when, and if you re-install Windows you can decrypt your files. The advantage of this method is that you don't feel that your files are encrypted, you just open them like you would any files.
    The downside is that encryption level is not particularly strong.

    Method #2:
    Is to use the above suggestions. You have more steps to do to access your encrypted data, but it's more secure.

    So, it depends how sensitive your data is. You said that you had real sensitive data, so for SURE go with method #2. I recommend TrueCrypt.

    Note: XP Professional provide extremely basic encryption system, not worth trying.
     
  6. cassar

    cassar Notebook Evangelist

    Reputations:
    619
    Messages:
    356
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    i would say also truecrypt