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Encrypt USB Drives

Putting an encrypted partition on an USB drive can be a great way to enhance the safety of data. Several software developers have created solutions to encrypt USB drives. True Crypt for example is a very popular disk encryption tool that can create partitions on USB drives.

Rohos Mini Drive was specifically designed with USB drive encryption and ease of use in mind. It uses the 256-bit AES as the encryption algorithm and can create encrypted partitions with a maximum size of 1 Gigabyte. The program does not require installation and can be run right of the USB drive.

So how does this work? The user executs the Rohos Mini Drive software which will automatically detect usb drives that are connected to the computer. One usb drive will be selected automatically but the user can change to another one if multiple drives are connected to the computer.

He then specifies a password that will be used to decrypt and encrypt the data in the partition of the usb drive.

encrypt usb drive

This procedure is not that different from encrypting an USB drive with True Crypt. Rohos Mini Drive however comes with a feature that makes it possible to access the data without administration rights. The software comes with another program called Rohos Mini Drive which is a simple disk browser. This tool can be used to browse the contents of the encrypted usb drive without admin rights.

Rohos Mini Drive comes with two additional interesting features. The first is a virtual keyboard which can be used to defeat keyloggers on a computer while the second is an autostart folder to start applications immediately after connection.

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About the Author:Martin Brinkmann is a journalist from Germany who founded Ghacks Technology News Back in 2005. He is passionate about all things tech and knows the Internet and computers like the back of his hand. You can follow Martin on Facebook or Twitter.

Author: , Tuesday September 9, 2008 -
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Responses so far:

  1. Very interesting this software. Thank you…

  2. Zanza says:

    so the software has to be started from the pc to access the usb-drive?
    i think with truecrypt its possible to start it directly from the usb-drive.

  3. Martin says:

    Zanza it can be started right from the stick.

  4. Domdom says:

    I tried decrypting the key using the software on the key without being admin: it doesnt work on 2 of my corporate PC :-( too bad … I will inquiry on the ROHOS forum …

  5. MicheL says:

    Well, according to ERIC, this program is everything but dzeable !

  6. Paul says:

    Not a bad little programme, but you can’t transfer directories into the encrypted partition, nor can you create directories! So this means all your files will be floating about together. Sadly, that kills it for me

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