Can I put a password on certain folders?

I want my school folders to ask for a password when I open them.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

NOTE: Moving thread. Not a hardware issue.

kilo15 said:

I want my school folders to ask for a password when I open them.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Click to expand...

G'day kilo15.

This can be achieved with or without 3rd party apps. If you want to go with what's already on your Mac, then Disc Utility is worth a look.

Open up the "Disc Utility" application

File>New>Disk Image from Folder...

Choose a folder to protect, then choose "AES-128" encryption and press Save.

Enter your newly created password twice.

What this process actually does is creates a disk image file (.dmg). The disk image contains the entire contents of the folder, but only you can open it with your password.

To access your school folder, just double-click the .dmg file in Finder. Then in the text box that appears enter your password and the dmg will be mounted as an image and you can see the contents of your school folder.

If you want to give a 3rd Party app a go, then you could try eyeHide (click link)

Pulse-8 said:

Open up the "Disk Utility" application
File>New>Disk Image from Folder...
Choose a folder to protect, then choose "AES-128" encryption and press Save.
Enter your newly created password twice.

Click to expand...

Excellent info Pulse-8 - I'm glad to know this myself.

lol...it's too much for my brain, this disC/K business....

Macs have a blahzillion little jobs that they can do ... but I just only wan't to do a little of what my Mac is truely capable of....like password protecting a folder...I can see the benefits, but I just don't need to do it ... I must only use like 10% of this amazing machines capabilities!

nice Pulse-8!
thread subscribed! might even dump this in the switcher f.a.q. under advanced stuff.

still can't give you rep - i'll have to try later!

lol...cheers eric!

added!

http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/showpost.php?p=301335&postcount=4

Pulse-8 said:

What this process actually does is creates a disk image file (.dmg). The disk image contains the entire contents of the folder, but only you can open it with your password.

Click to expand...

repified

Using a password-protected disk is like leaving your front door unlocked because you have a jewelry safe. You might protect a few things, but anyone who wants to can still cause a lot of trouble for you.

The correct way to protect your stuff is to Log out of your account.

to protect your whole system yes, but a lot of people just want one folder protecting . .

Thanks for the information.

technologist said:

The correct way to protect your stuff is to Log out of your account.

Click to expand...

teapea said:

to protect your whole system yes, but a lot of people just want one folder protecting . .

Click to expand...

Yes, but logging out isn't foolproof either. If you are really concerned with sensitive data, then you should use file vault (security under system prefs) to protect your entire user folder, or the encrypted disk image method suggested before.

Logging out or locking your screen is always a good idea, however if someone really wanted access to your data, they could simply boot your computer off the installer DVD (or into single-user mode) and open up your home folder.

How about eyeHide? I haven't tried it though... Or safeThis from the same dev?

I just tried it and it worked wonderful. At first it didn't ask for the password but I then realized that the password was on the keychain. I only need the encryption for my friends and family. I let them use my mac for curiosity. I just don't want to loose my school notes because of my generosity. I am not worried about being hacked or anything. I don't have trade secrets on this machine anyway.

EVERYTHING THAT I DO IS A TRADE SECRET :robot:.

Just kidding. When dealing with other people using my machine I've always tried to go by the book as I feel the OS was meant to work. Therefore I am an adamant user of fast user switching and/or logging out. :bone:

me too. but if i keep my password from my wife... there'll be trouble, and that starts with T, and yadda yadda yadda...

OT: I hunt frittering River City youth for sport, so be warned eric.

Lol!

kilo15 said:

I just tried it and it worked wonderful. At first it didn't ask for the password but I then realized that the password was on the keychain. I only need the encryption for my friends and family. I let them use my mac for curiosity. I just don't want to loose my school notes because of my generosity. I am not worried about being hacked or anything. I don't have trade secrets on this machine anyway.

Click to expand...

Glad it helped. :girl: