Recommend a portable hard drive please.

kala85

I need to buy a portable hard drive and I am looking for recommendations. something that is reliable, reasonably priced.
I will be using the drive as a backup drive , but would be looking to store information on it. Can the drive be password protected?

Torqay

Portable hard disk drive and reliable doesn't go together very well. If you want reliabilty, get a solid state disk but the costs (€/GB) are signignificantly higher. A 128 GB SSD plus 2.5" caddy should cost around €100. Of course you can buy ruggedized portable hard disk drives, but they're not exactly cheap either and still nowhere near as safe as solid state disks.

And yes, external hadrives can be encrypted and password proteced, i.e. with TrueCrypt.

kala85

ssd might be an option - are they just connected using a usb cable as well. I was reading about them there now on wikipedia and it said that there was only a certain number of times a ssd can save?

Also with regard to true crypt how difficult is it to set up and how secure is it. Can it be set up so that some parts of the disk are password protected and other parts of it are password free?

Chemical Burn

Iomega hands down

kala85

what about sea gate?

Torqay

kala85 wrote: »

ssd might be an option - are they just connected using a usb cable as well.

They do fit into a 2.5" SATA enclosure like any other 2.5" HDD, same form factor. Get a USB 3.0 caddy for higher transfer rates.

kala85 wrote: »

I was reading about them there now on wikipedia and it said that there was only a certain number of times a ssd can save?

Do not worry...

kala85 wrote: »

Also with regard to true crypt how difficult is it to set up and how secure is it. Can it be set up so that some parts of the disk are password protected and other parts of it are password free?

Yes, this is possible, though not really recommended.

kala85

Torqay wrote: »

They do fit into a 2.5" SATA enclosure like any other 2.5" HDD, same form factor. Get a USB 3.0 caddy for higher transfer rates.



Do not worry...



Yes, this is possible, though not really recommended.

How secure is it?

Amalgam

kala85 wrote: »

..and how secure is it.

As secure as you can get. Nothing better in my view. Because of the way it is compiled and scrutinized by a lot of clever people\users.

Use a password along the lines of:

*#///Th0mas012776548///Craig01283365678///Mart1n013888277///#*

Hook it into your mind by using familiar people and numbers.

All the one, 'non english' helps too. To defeat word library\list attacks..

kala85 wrote: »

Can it be set up so that some parts of the disk are password protected and other parts of it are password free?

Yes, you can just have a portable '.tc' volume on your HD\USB stick, basically a large Truecrypt volume that just sits there, like any other file.

When you want access to it, just 'mount' the file.

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A lot of Universities have Truecrypt guides on their sites, for staff and students, a good sign of a software application's pedigree and sturdiness.

Here's one from UCD for instance. 5 years old but still valid.

http://www.ucd.ie/itservices/itsupport/itsecurity/securitytools/howtocreateaportableencryptedusbkeyusingtruecrypt/

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kala85

what about bit locker