There are two distinct strategies you can use to encode your outer hard drives on a Mac. Both the strategies come inbuilt with macOS. You needn’t bother with any outer programming to do it. In any case, before we begin, make and note down a solid password which you will use to unscramble your hard drive after it has been encoded.
Note: Attempted these strategies on MacBook Pro running macOS High Sierra however the strategy should take a shot at macOS Sierra and more seasoned forms too.
Encrypt Using Finder
- Plug-in the external drive to a Mac.
- Open Finder and right-tap on the drive.
- Select the Encrypt choice as shown in the screenshot underneath:
- Utilizing the Disk Utility Tool
You can likewise encode your outer hard drive utilizing the Disk Utility Tool. One thing to remember is that this strategy will delete every one of your information before it scrambles the hard drive. Henceforth, it is appropriate just for another hard drive. The primary use of Disk Utility Tool is the point at which you would prefer not to scramble the entire drive yet just a piece of it. Disk Utility Tool will enable you to make parcels on your hard drive and after that encode the segment you need to scramble.
Encrypt with Disk Utility
Open the Disk Utility Tool via looking for it in Spotlight or by going to Finder->Applications->Utilities->Disk Utility. Select your outside drive from the left side menu and afterward tap on the “Eradicate” catch. Keep in mind that if there’s any information on the drive, it will be deleted utilizing this procedure.
- Set a password, and enter a moment time to confirm it. Additionally give an insight to help on the off chance that the password is overlooked. It is proposed to record the password and place it in a sheltered place in the event that something goes wrong.
- Snap “Scramble Disk” to start the encryption procedure
The encryption procedure can be snappy for littler drives like USB keys and SD cards, however can take a long time for extensive outside hard drives used for backups or individual information. Be set up to sit tight a bit for anything bigger than a couple of GB in measure, as the general encryption-to-GB time proportion is by all accounts around 1GB every moment.
Once the drive has completed the process of encoding and is detached, a password will be required before the information can be gotten to from the Mac. To keep up the password security, make certain to uncheck sparing the password to the Keychain when inquired.