With the rise in popularity of external hard drives comes the question of their security. A user will need some type of protection to use these external hard drives with any sensitive files. That is why a person needs to password protect any external hard drive she uses.

1.
Step 1

Decide if you want to pay for a software package to provide this security on the external hard drive. There are free software downloads and pay downloads. The pay versions (GiliSoft USB Stick Encryption)may offer more security but if money is tight, you may want to choose the free version.
2.
Step 2

Connect the external hard drive to your computer.
3.
Step 3

Download the password protection software to the external hard drive. Follow the onscreen instructions to install the software. See the resources section for more information.
4.
Step 4

Choose a password to protect the external hard drive. You want to choose a password that is easy to remember but not so common that others will guess the password and gain access to the external hard drive.
5.
Step 5

Follow the user instructions of the downloaded software to password protect the external hard drive.
6.
Step 6

Test the external hard drive security by connecting the drive to another computer and try to access the drive. If successful, it will ask you for the password established in Step 4.