Guid

I tried to encrypt a USB stick using the drop down menu and was told it needed a GUID Partition Table. I found a number of references describing what it is but not one about how to install it on a USB drive.

I have a 2013 Air.

Thanks for any help on this.

BTW, if there is another way to encrypt a USB drive, that would work too. I am not trying to defeat the NSA, just want to slow down the casual snooper.

Jim

It sounds as though you're following instructions for encrypting an internal hard disk. Do you have a link to the information you're following?

Why not create an encrypted disk image (DMG) and put that image on the USB drive?

G'day and welcome to the forums.

Hook the drive up and go into Disk Utility. Select the thumb drive, format and into Partition, under Options select GUID.

How To Encrypt External Drives in OS X Lion - Personal-tech - Desktop Applications - BYTE

harryb2448 said:

G'day and welcome to the forums.

Hook the drive up and go into Disk Utility. Select the thumb drive, format and into Partition, under Options select GUID.

How To Encrypt External Drives in OS X Lion - Personal-tech - Desktop Applications - BYTE

Click to expand...

Thanks for the welcome. I have been lurking and learning. This is my first Mac.

I'll give this method a go.

Jim

I am sure its me, but I tried this method with the disk utility and was given this message when I tried to encrypt it. I selected one partition and FAT32 was the default. It is a 16 gig drive.

"The given file system is not supported on Core Storage."

Edit

I went back and changed the file system to Mac and am having better luck.

You need to change from fat32 as per the instructions posted above. It's the 5th screenshot on that page

When you do that (Change from FAT32) the USB Stick will no longer be compatible with Windows. Given you are encrypting it, that may not matter, but at least you ought to know. If/when you decide to recycle the stick into a windows machine you'll need to repartition and reformat it to FAT32 again.

Thanks for all the help everyone. Got it sorted.

Jim