Oct 25, 2016 It’s important to remember this process of decrypting external drives is entirely separate from using FileVault encryption on a Mac for the internal drive. FileVault does not encrypt external drives, and thus decrypting an external drive this way does not decrypt FileVault either (though you can disable FileVault in a separate process if you wanted to for some reason). LaCie Rugged Secure 2TB External Hard Drive Portable HDD – USB-C USB 3.0 Drop Shock Dust Rain Resistant Computer Desktop Workstation Laptop Hardware Encryption, 1 Month Adobe CC (STFR2000403) 3.8 out of 5 stars 1,436. 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+.
Posted by Tim to Bitlocker for Mac Tips on November 21th, 2017
How to format external hard drive for Mac and Windows PC usage?
1. Format external hard drive with FAT32/exFAT file system.
Although FAT32/exFAT file system is developed by Microsoft, but macOS can also read/write external hard drive with FAT32/exFAT file system.
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2. Format external hard drive with NTFS file system.
Although NTFS file system is developed by Microsoft, but macOS can only read NTFS external hard drive and cannot write NTFS external hard drive, you need to install extra NTFS for Mac app if you want to write NTFS external hard drive on Mac.
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. Although Microsoft just developed and released Bitlocker for Windows and there's no Mac implementation, but with the help of M3 Bitlocker Loader for Mac, Bitlocker encrypted external hard drive can be readable on Mac.
Tutorial to encrypt/password protect external hard drive with Bitlocker on Windows
Step 1: Insert external hard drive to a Windows computer.
Windows 10 Professional/Enterprise, Windows 8/8.1 Professional/Enterprise, Windows 7 Ultimate/Enterprise, Windows Vista Ultimate/Enterprise, Windows Server 2008/2012 are available for Bitlocker drive encryption. If you only have Windows 7/8/10 Home edition, please refer to: How to enable Bitlocker in Windows 7/8/10 Home edition?
Step 2: Format external hard drive into FAT32/NTFS/exFAT file system. If there is data in external hard drive, please go to step 3.
Step 3: Right click external hard drive in My Computer or This PC and select 'Turn on Bitlocker'.
Step 4: On the 'Choose How You Want To Unlock This Drive' window, choose 'Use A Password To Unlock This Drive' option and then click Next.
Step 5: On the 'How Do You Want To Store Your Recovery Key' window, click Save The Recovery Key To A File.
Step 6: In the 'Save BitLocker Recovery Key As' window, choose a storage location and then click Save.
Step 7: On the 'Are You Ready To Encrypt This Drive' window, click Start Encrypting.
Tutorial to encrypt/password protect external hard drive with Bitlocker on Mac
Step 1: Download and install M3 Bitlocker Loader for Mac.
Portable Hard Drive Encryption Software
Step 2: Insert an external hard drive into Mac computer.
Step 3: Launch M3 Bitlocker Loader for Mac.
Step 4: Click 'Encrypt' button in toolbar.
Step 5: Select the partition which you want to encrypt and click Encrypt.
External Hard Drive Encryption Software For Mac Windows 10
Step 6: Enter the password.
Step 7: Save the recovery key.
Step 8: Complete Bitlocker drive encryption.
Tutorial to read/write Bitlocker encrypted external hard drive on Mac
Step 1: Download, install and launch M3 Bitlocker Loader for Mac on your Mac computer.
Step 2: Insert a Bitlocker encrypted external hard drive and then click 'Unlock/Open' icon to continue.
Step 3: Enter the password (or 48-digit Bitlocker recovery key) to unlock Bitlocker encrypted external hard drive.
Step 4: After Bitlocker protected external hard drive is unlocked and mounted in read-write mode, we can copy, delete, transfer, edit files from Bitlocker encrypted external hard drive.
Video tutorial:
Related articles:
Mac operating system provides an incredible built-in encryption support. If the requirement is to encrypt removable drives, the whole hard disk, or just want to create an encrypted folder for your most important files. You will find all these features in the built-in operating system of Mac.
Encrypt Mac System Drive
The File Vault feature of Mac operating system permits the users to encrypt their entire hard drive. When the user enables the File Vault, the files in the system that are stored on the drive are encrypted in a scrambled way. If anyone who has access to your Mac removes the hard disk and tries to see, your files will be unable to view them if he doesn’t have the encryption key to unlock the drive. Usually, a person who can access your Mac physically will be able to remove the hard disk, and the person can see the files as they are deposited in an unencrypted form.
The user can select the users accounts to whom the access is granted to unlock the drive. Whenever the user turns on his Mac system, he will have to log in with one of the accounts that he has already listed before the drive can be unlocked. The disk will be locked again when the user turns off the Mac operating system.
Enable the File Vault:
If the user wants to enable File Vault he has to click on the Apple icon at the top of the screen to choose the Preferences of the system and select the Security & Privacy icon. Now Turn on File Vault option to configure and enable File Vault.
File Vault provides the user with a recovery key, and the user has to note the key in a secure place.
Once the configuring of File Vault is completed, the Mac will start again, and the encryption process of the hard disk will begin.
Encrypt Mac Removable Devices:External Hard Drive Encryption Software For Mac Windows 7
Mac operating system permits the users to encrypt the drive, like an external hard disk or USB drive. The data on the drive will be encrypted with a password, and no one will be allowed to access that data without that password.
Encrypt the Removable Drive:
Good External Hard Drive For Mac![]()
To encrypt a removable drive, just open the Finder and connect the disk to your Mac. Right-click on the disk in the sidebar and choose the option to Encrypt Disk Name.
When the user enters the password, the drive will be encrypted. To encrypt the drive, you have to wait for few minutes and the time will depend on the speed and data of your drive.
Encrypt Mac Specific Files:
If you want to encrypt specific files you have to create a disk image or an encrypted file container. Whenever the user required accessing the files, he will have to mount the disk image and have to provide the password. If the user wants to lock the files again, then he will have to mount it again, and no one will be allowed to view the files.
This was an easy method to encrypt the selected files. You don’t require encrypting your entire disk instead you have to create a container to do the task.
Best External Hard Drives For Mac
These were some methods using which you can encrypt your Mac system’s drive, individual files, and removable devices.
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