Re: Formatting USB flashdrive

"Bill" <not@xxxxxxx> wrote in
news:yMOdner085xWIz3bnZ2dnUVZ8tyqnZ2d@xxxxxx:

I believe that Win XP Pro has the facility to encrypt folders
and/or the files within them, but only if the hard drive uses NTFS
rather than FAT32 - is that correct?

If it is, can a USB flashdrive (like this one, for instance
http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/116102) be formatted as NTFS to
allow folder encryption?


I believe that you can do this. But beware that the Encrypting File
System (EFS) and your encrypted data will most likely be tied to one
computer. You will have difficulty moving your memory stick from one
machine to another. Also, Make sure you read the following reference
and backup your Certificate *before* using EFS or, guaranteed, you will
lose your data when Windows crashes one day.

"Best practices for the Encrypting File System"
<http://support.microsoft.com/kb/223316/en-us>

Having said that, I would highly recommend that, instead, you use the
freeware "Truecrypt" over EFS to encrypt your data to your USB
flashdrive. It has a "traveler mode" so that you can access your
encrypted data from different machines (even securely over a network)
and it will work with FAT32 filesystems just as well as NTFS file
systems. It also works with Win2000 / XP Home / XP Pro / Vista /
Linux.

<http://www.truecrypt.org>

HTH,
John
.

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