Hard drive encryption is an integral step for anyone looking to secure their data. It is a process which will go a step beyond regular password security and will ensure that a hard drive remain secure only to the user. However, it is important to note that once a hard drive is encrypted, ITS can not remove the encryption so any files that cannot be accessed may remain that way until the user themselves can access them.

1. Best Encryption Tool For Seagate External Mac Setup
2. Seagate Mac External Hard Drive
3. Seagate Hdd Tool
4. Best Encryption Tool For Seagate External Mac Drive

There are both paid and free software for OSX and WIndows, this guide will focus mainly on OSX 10.6 and above and Windows 7 and above.

Note: Drive encryption may require you to format your drive.

Apple Disk Encryption (File Vault)

Microsoft Windows BitLocker (free)

Alternative Encrypting Applications.

If the default operating system encryption methods don't work for you or you want something a little more secure or efficient, there are a few other third-party applications out there for your convenience. Some recommendations include:

Best Encryption Tool For Seagate External Mac Setup

Seagate external drive; Seagate Expansion Review [2018] Simple, cheap, and reliable. Renars - December 15, 2014. While most other hard drives come with a backup tool, a security and encryption tool, cloud backup software etc., the Expansion has none of these features. With the Canvio even providing an NTFS driver for Mac right out. Welcome to the community, Priyanka_1! What is your Mac OS X version? I'd recommend you to check how the external drive appears on a Windows PC first and see if you can access it from there. VeraCrypt is arguably one of the best and most popular open-source encryption tools. Moreover, it is a successor to TrueCrypt which ceased to exist a few years back. VeraCrypt is free and is available for Windows, Mac OS, and Linux. FreeAgent Desk for Mac - Quick Start Guide, Data Sheet and Downloads. FreeAgent Go Tools - Seagate Encryption Software Overview and Limitations. How to defragment a hard drive in Windows. MacOS energy-saver setting. How to use a Seagate external drive with Windows RT (Microsoft Surface). The various tools for encrypting data can be divided into 3 broad categories: 1) Self Encrypting USB Drives, 2) Media Encryption Software, 3) File Encryption Software. Self Encrypting USB Drives are portable USB drives that embed encryption algorithms within the hard drive, thus eliminating the need to install any encryption software. See it on Amazon. One of the Best Gaming External Hard Drives For Mac Silicon Power Armor A60. The Silicon Power Armor A60 is a rugged and portable external hard drive that comes with 3 TB storage capacity, military-grade shock-proof body, cable carry design, USB 3.0 and is compatible with Xbox One, Xbox 360, PS4, PS4 Pro and PS4 Slim.

Link to GNU Privacy Guard web page (Windows, OSX, Linux) - Free

Link to TrueCrypt web page (Windows, OSX, Linux) - Free

Link to 7-Zip web page (Windows) - Free

Link to AxCrypt web site (Windows) - Free

Seagate Mac External Hard Drive

It's not hard to lose a USB flash drive; it's even easier to steal one. If you're the victim of such a theft, panic is understandable. There could be work documents, private pictures, your kid's birthday party video, or amazing notes for a NaNoWriMo novel—anything—on that drive. It's unlikely to be the only copy—this is the age of online backup and sync, after all. But if you're crazy enough to trust your most important, irreplaceable data to a device that's even easier to misplace or forget than your keys, at least make sure that data is secure.

What you'll need is software for encrypting the data, and that software has to be portable, in that it runs on any PC without installation, since it will likely run from the flash drive itself. Note, these solutions also work with any external hard drive, for the most part, plus your much-harder-to-steal internal hard disk drives (HDDs) and solid-state drives (SSDs).

Encryption Software

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The first choice should always be to try a free software solution. A current favorite these days is VeraCrypt. It's free, open-source, and available for Windows, Mac, and Linux. It lets you create a volume/vault on your USB flash drive that only you can access, or encrypt an existing drive (as long as it isn't system necessary, like your C: drive), or optionally, encrypt the entire system drive so anyone who tries to install programs or read/write files would need to enter a password each time. That last one is overkill; stick to the first few options.

The volumes created by VeraCrypt can be standard—they're visible but only the person with the password can get access—or hidden. With the latter, even if you're forced to give up the password, it's unlikely anyone can find your data to get access anyway.

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When you go to install VeraCrypt, there's an option to Extract. Do that and extract the files to your USB Drive. That makes a portable version, so you don't need to have VeraCrypt on every system that you'll plug the drive into—but it does have to be on an administror-level log-in on the PC.

The VeraCrypt site has an excellent step-by-step tutorial. Another free option is CipherShed; both are off-shoots of the late, great TrueCrypt. BitLocker, which comes with select versions of Windows (the non-'Home' versions), can also be used to secure USB or external drives. If you prefer to pay, check out the $12.99 EncryptStick, which comes for Mac and Windows.

Secure Flash Drives

There are millions of USB flash drives around—I have three of various capacities littering my desk at the moment. So using third-party software to secure their contents makes great sense. But if you want security from the start, there are plenty of drives that come with security built right into the hardware.

A few select flash drives have a number pad right on the drive itself. You enter a PIN code before you can access the contents. They include the Aegis Secure Key 3.0, a $65 flash drive at 4GB with FIPS 140-2 Level 3 encryption (pictured right; it also comes in 8, 16, and 32GB versions).

If you think reaching for the number pad is an issue, there's also a few biometric USB flash drives. IronKey, by Imation, is a pretty well-known name for secure drives; it's F200 with built-in finger-swipe (pictured above) and throws in multi-factor authentication for your files. The price, of course, is much higher, with the base model with 8GB starting at $189 direct and shooting to a price of $649 for 64GB! It gets good marks for security, but most reviews also say its performance is lacking.

But you don't need to have anything fancy built into the hardware of your USB flash drive to be secure. Several models come with encryption software. It's held in a partition of the drive itself and looks to Windows like a CD, so it can auto-play activate when inserted, giving you instant access. Some options include the Kanguru Defender 2000 (4GB for $69); IronKey F150 (8GB for $139), Kingston DataTraveler Vauilt Privacy 3.0 (4GB for $35), and several more. All of these listed are base models; you can always get more capacity by paying more. For savings, be sure to compare on Google or using Amazon.