Introduction:
When it comes to travelling in style along with our data, the only option that pops into our minds are the portable USB drives. And why not as these drives have been an eminent part of our lives since a decade. It is not because they were perfect but they were there, when we needed them the most. Other means of data storage are emerging alongside USB drives and have captivated a suitable number of market share but its reliability is still at question. For example, cloud storage, an option that lets you store data on the cloud without having to maintain any physical drive.
Folder Lock Password Protect USB/CD.
Folder Lock lets you keep your personal files encrypted in a variety of ways, in both PC and portable drives and offers backup of protected files to an Online storage. Protect USB/CD features three powerful options to protect your portable data, including Protect USB, Protect CD/DVD, and Encrypt Email Attachments.
To start encrypting and protecting your portable data with Protect USB/CD, simply follow the instructions that follow.
Protect USB
Protect USB enables you to convert your Lockers into self-executable applications that you can copy to your USB or external drives. You can then simply execute them on any computer and enter the correct password to access your data even if you don’t have Folder Lock installed.
You can either create Portable Locker directly on your USB / External drive or use an existing Locker and convert it into Portable Self Executable Locker.
To start creating your portable Locker files directly to a USB/External drive, simply run Folder Lock and go to the ‘Protect USB/CD’. Once you are in the Protect USB/CD screen, click on the Protect USB option to start Step 1 of the Portable Locker wizard.
To start making your existing Lockers portable, follow the instructions outlined below:
Step 1
Click on ‘Protect USB Drive’ button. You will be presented with the ‘Protect USB Drive’ window. Select the ‘Make My Existing Locker Portable’ option to make an existing Locker portable.
After you have made your selection, press ‘Next’ to continue to Step 2.
Step 2
Here, you will be presented with the Existing Locker window, where you will be requested for the Locker details.
Select your existing Locker by clicking on the ‘Browse’ button. Once you have located your existing Locker, click ‘Open’ to select the Locker. After you have selected your existing Locker, the ‘Locker Location’ field will show the full path to the Locker.
Once you have selected the Locker to be made portable, click on the ‘Browse’ button to select the destination for this portable Locker. You can choose your USB / External drive, Shared folder, Network mapped drive, NAS device or you can choose to save this portable Locker on your fixed drive as well. Once you have selected the location for your portable Locker, click ‘Next’ to continue Step 3 and Step 4.
Step 3 and Step 4
If you are making an existing Locker portable, after you have entered the required details in the Existing Locker window, press ‘Next’ to start the process of copying your encrypted Locker to your selected USB drive as well as creating a self-executable .EXE file. To cancel the process, click on ‘Cancel’ at any time.
The progress bar will show you the Portable Locker creation process. Once the process has been completed, the wizard will display the Locker Name, Locker Path, Locker Size, and the Locker Type information for your Portable Locker, click the ‘Finish’ button to close the window. Now all you need to do is double-click the newly created .EXE file to run and explore your new portable Locker(s). Enter your password to access your data.
To start creating a new Locker directly on your USB/External drives, follow the instructions outlined below:
Step 1
Click on the ‘Protect USB Drive’ button. You will be presented with the ‘Protect USB Drive’ window. Select ‘Create a New Portable Locker in USB/External Drive’ to create a new Locker directly in your USB/External drive.
After you have made your selection, press ‘Next’ to continue to Step 2.
Step 2
Here, you will be presented with the ‘New Portable Locker’ window, where you will be requested for the new portable Locker details.
Enter the name for your Portable Locker and select the destination where you wish to create the Portable Locker. You can select your USB / External drive, Shared folder Network drive, NAS devices or you can also create them on your fixed drive. You can execute these Portable Lockers on any computer with or without administrative privileges. Just provide the correct password and access your data.
In the ‘Select your USB drive’ field, click on the ‘Browse’ button to set the destination path for the new portable Locker. After you have selected a location for the new portable Locker, set a password for the new portable Locker in the ‘Set Password’ field.
Next, you will need to re-enter the password in the ‘Confirm Password’ field. Once you have entered the required details in the ‘New Portable Locker’ window, click on the ‘Next’ button to continue to Step 3.
It is strongly recommended to make sure that you keep a password that is hard-to-guess, but easy-to-remember. Your Locker password will be at least 6 characters short and up to a maximum of 100 characters. You may use both Alphanumeric and special characters to set your password.
A password-strength meter will show you the strength of your password and you will have the option to enter your password using the Virtual Keyboard available. The Virtual Keyboard allows you to enter your Locker Password without the fear of your password being hacked into by a Keystroke recorder or Keyloggers. Once you have set and confirmed your Locker Password, click ‘Next’ to continue to Step 3.
Step 3
Here, you will be presented with the ‘How much data do you want to protect’ window, where you will need to specify a size for your new portable Locker. From the field ‘Choose Size’, select your new portable Locker size. The Locker size will be in MB, GB, and TB. You can choose an appropriate Locker size either from the drop-down list or enter a custom Locker size by clicking on the ‘Custom’ link next to the Standard drop-down list. You may choose any size for your portable Locker between 300 MB – 2 TB.
Because the Locker size CANNOT be changed in the future, we recommend that you choose the maximum size for your data. This is very useful to accommodate your future data protection needs, and you can keep adding more files to your Locker as and when you require.
Once you have set the Locker size, the wizard will display the size of the Locker-file that will be required to create your portable Locker, as well as the available disk-space.
Please note that if you select a Portable Locker size more than 4 GBs, Folder Lock will create two files while creating the new portable Locker – 1) A self-executable .EXE file, and 2) a Locker file.
After you have made your selection, press the ‘Next’ button to go to Step 4.
Step 4
Once you have entered the required details and clicked on the ‘Next’ button, the process of creating your new encrypted portable Locker to your selected USB drive as well as creating a self-executable .EXE file will begin. To cancel the process, click on ‘Cancel’ at any time. After your new portable Locker and the .EXE file has been created, the wizard will display the Portable EXE Name, Portable Locker Path, Portable Locker Size, and the Portable Locker Type information, click on the ‘Finish’ button to close the wizard. Your new Portable Locker along with the .EXE file is now ready to be executed and explored.
Protect CD/DVD
Protect CD/DVD feature of Folder Lock enables you to convert your Lockers into self-executable applications and burn them to a CD/DVD drive. You can then simply execute them on any computer and enter the correct password to access your data even if you don’t have Folder Lock installed. Please remember that if the Locker(s) being converted into portable Lockers, a self-executable application (.EXE) will be created for Lockers up to 4 GBs in size. If the Lockers being burned are more than 4 GBs in size, then a separate .EXE file will be created on the CD/DVD along with the portable Locker file.
To convert and burn your Locker files to CDs/DVDs, simply go to the Protect USB/CD feature in Folder Lock and click on the ‘Protect CD/DVD’ option on the screen. Next, select the Locker file you wish to convert and burn to CD/DVD. Next, select the drive where the CD/DVD is inserted, and then click ‘Next’ to start the process of creating a self-executable (.EXE) file as well as the portable Locker, click on the ‘Finish’ button to close the wizard.
Please note that you cannot convert and burn a Locker which is already open. You also cannot convert and burn your Locker to a CD/DVD if there is not enough space in the CD/DVD. You may, however, directly burn a portable Locker to a CD/DVD.
You do not need to set a new password for the portable Locker for your CD/DVD. The portable Locker password will be the same as the one for the original Locker. If you wish to access your portable Locker on a computer where you have administrative rights, simply double-click the portable Locker from CD/DVD, and enter the portable Locker password. Once you have entered the portable Locker password, the portable Locker will open as a self-executable explorer, and it will open on the selected drive (default is Z:\) . The portable Locker will also open with a Read-Only access.
If you wish to access your portable Locker on a computer with non-administrative rights, simply double-click the portable Locker from CD/DVD, and confirm if whether you have administrative rights or are a non-administrative user. If you click ‘YES’ to administrative user, you will need to enter the computer administrative password, and upon verification, you will need to enter the portable Locker password. Once you have entered the portable Locker password, your portable Locker will mount on your selected drive with Read-Only access. If you said ‘NO’ to the administrative user question, you will need to enter the portable Locker password, and upon verification of your password, your portable Locker will open in Self Explorer as a self-executable as Read-Only.
Encrypt Email Attachments
Encrypt Email Attachments enables you to create encrypted ZIP file of your confidential files. You can then email them as attachments using any of your regular email clients or webmail. To give access to these encrypted email attachments, simply share the unique passwords for each encrypted ZIP file with the intended user.
Using Military Standard 256-bit AES on-the-fly encryption to protect your important files, Folder Lock encrypts your important data and gives you a complete peace of mind when it comes to keeping your portable files safe.
Step 1
To start creating encrypted portable Zip files in Folder Lock, simply go to the ‘Protect USB/CD’ and click on the ‘Encrypt Email Attachment’ option.
Once you have clicked on the Encrypt Email Attachment option, you will be presented with a wizard that will guide you through the rest of the process. The wizard will have a welcome screen where you can click on the Next button to continue.
Step 2
After you click on the Next button, you will be asked to add the files and folders you wish to encrypt and email. To start adding files and folders to encrypt for email, click on the ‘Add’ button on the top menu. The Add button includes the ‘Add File(s)’ and the ‘Add Folder(s)’ options. Select your option, and chose your files and folders for encryption. Once you have selected your files and folders, click on the ‘Next’ button to continue to Step 3.
Step 3
After you have added your selected files and folders to the list, click on the ‘Next’ button to continue. This will bring you to a screen where you will be requested enter the encrypted Zip file’s name in the Zip Name field and the path in the Zip Path field. Further on, you will need to enter the Zip file’s password details in the Set Password and the Confirm Password fields respectively.
It is strongly recommended to make sure that you keep a password that is hard-to-guess, but easy-to-remember. Your encrypted ZIP file password will be at least 6 characters short and up to a maximum of 100 characters. You may use Alphanumeric or special characters to set your password.
A password-strength meter will show you the strength of your password and you will have the option to enter your password using the Virtual Keyboard available. The Virtual Keyboard allows you to enter your Locker Password without the fear of your password being hacked into by a Keystroke recorder or Keyloggers. Once you have set and confirmed your Locker Password, click ‘Next’ to continue to Step 3.
After you have entered the required details, click the ‘Next’ button to start the encryption process.
Step 4 and 5
The Encrypt Email Attachment process completes with the creation of an encrypted ZIP file. Once the process has finished, the wizard screen will show you Zip Name, Zip Path and Zip Size of the encrypted ZIP file.
Click on the ‘Email Now’ button to email and share your encrypted ZIP file as an attachment with anyone you trust. Simply share the password for the encrypted Zip file for access to its contents.
If you prefer to email your encrypted ZIP file at a later time, just click on the ‘Finish’ button to proceed to the main screen.
To encrypt email attachments, you can add multiple files and folders to encrypt for email. Files can also be of any extension. Once your encrypted email attachments have been created, you can email them by using any email client or webmail of your choosing.
Users who have the password for these encrypted Zip files and who wish to access them do not have to install Folder Lock in order to do so. Encrypt Email Attachments provides strong data protection and peace of mind along with flexibility, without restricting you in pursuit of a dependable portable data security solution.
How do I edit, copy/move, or delete a portable Locker?
In computers where Folder Lock is not installed, your portable Locker(s) can be easily copied, moved, and deleted directly from Windows. However, if you have Folder Lock installed, and you wish to make any changes to a portable Locker with a file size of 4 GB and above, you will be controlled by the existing security protocols of the application set by a user at that time. This means that you will no longer be able to freely copy, move, or delete a portable Locker.
To do so, you will need to run Folder Lock, and go to the Encrypt Files feature. Once there, you will need to open the portable Locker by clicking on the Open Locker button on the top menu. Once you have the portable Locker opened and displayed in the Locker list, you can then move on to editing, copying, or moving the portable Locker. To edit, simply click a closed portable Locker in the Locker list in Encrypt Files, and click on the Edit Locker button on the top menu, enter the portable Locker password that will pop up, and click ‘OK’ to continue. The rest of the procedure is same as it was for Locker files.
Verdict:
Be it USB drives or CDs, you need to be very sure in eliminating the loopholes that may exist. Just because your USB drive is in your possession, does not mean you are secure and far from any danger. The solution of setting a password to a USB or CD disk is what leads you to the future. Since, you are well attached to your USB storage drive, it is hard for you to skip such an option and move to the cloud. In such case, get your drives password protected to avoid any occurrence of data losses.