Flash Drive Encryption Help

[CJ5]

I need help finding an easy, appropriate flash drive, memory stick, thumb drive - not sure what to call it so used all three names. I want to copy financial information from my iMac to a drive I can send to a person who uses a PC. My files are MS Word, MS Excel, and PDF. I am using macOS Ventura 13.2. The size of my files is small, less than 1GB. I have tried a PNY16 and ScanDisk Duo 128GB, I can load them, but then I can't encrypt the data. Thanks

 

[Raz0rEdge]

If you want to encrypt in macOS and decrypt in Windows, you'll need to employ a method that spans those two OS'. Each OS has its own way of doing this but it doesn't cross that boundary.

You should employ a 3rd party cross-OS tool that can do this. Veracrypt is a free open source tool that will work.

VeraCrypt - Free Open source disk encryption with strong security for the Paranoid

VeraCrypt is free open-source disk encryption software for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. In case an attacker forces you to reveal the password, VeraCrypt provides plausible deniability. In contrast to file encryption, data encryption performed by VeraCrypt is real-time (on-the-fly), automatic...

www.veracrypt.fr

Read up on the documentation, play around with it and see if it suits your needs

 

[IWT]

And remember to format the drive Ex-FAT so that (a) it can be read on Macs and Windows and (b) there is no size restriction on individual file size (as there is with MS-DOS).

Ian

 

[ferrarr]

And remember to format the drive Ex-FAT so that (a) it can be read on Macs and Windows and (b) there is no size restriction on individual file size (such as with MS-DOS).

Ian

The file size limitation is 4GB in MS-DOS.

 

[IWT]

The file size limitation is 4GB in MS-DOS.

Exactly my point, Bob. Thank you for emphasising the limitation of MS-DOS which is NOT the case with Ex-FAT.

Ian

 

[Rod]

That takes care of the formatting, either MS-DOS or ExFat are available formats in Disk Utility. Connect your Thumb Drive, open Disk Utility select your USB drive and Erase it, choosing a Name and a Format for it from the drop down menu.

I use MS-DOS most of the time but in the case of files over 4GB (I doubt if you would have many of those) such as a feature film I use ExFat.

The other aspect is ensuring that the other user can read the document in the same form as you have written it, obviously MS apps like Word will work on both platforms.

Lastly there is security in transit. As Aswin suggested in post #2 you might want to encrypt your documents in a way that can be unencrypted by the other party.

There are a lot of other ways to send secure documents from Mac to PC. I wonder if you have considered these as an alternative to mailing a USB stick. eg. Google Drive and DropBox just to name a few can allow sharing of a document across platforms secured with a private code (Token).

 

[Lifeisabeach]

Uh, guys. MS-DOS is an operating system. FAT32 is the file system you are trying to refer to. And it was introduced with Windows 95.

 

[Randy B. Singer]

I need help finding an easy, appropriate flash drive, memory stick, thumb drive - not sure what to call it so used all three names.

I usually call it a "USB flash drive" but I've heard all of those names used.

I want to copy financial information from my iMac to a drive I can send to a person who uses a PC. My files are MS Word, MS Excel, and PDF. I am using macOS Ventura 13.2. The size of my files is small, less than 1GB. I have tried a PNY16 and ScanDisk Duo 128GB, I can load them, but then I can't encrypt the data. Thanks

When I do this, I make things as simple as possible, and it always works perfectly with excellent security.

Your USB flash drive will usually come pre-formatted as "exFAT", which is ideal for sharing files with a Windows user, but you should check with Disk Utility and re-format your USB flash drive if necessary. See:

https://www.easeus.com/computer-instruction/format-usb-to-exfat-on-mac.html

I use a an encryption program (that includes password protection) that runs on both Macintosh and Windows, and which is free for both platforms. It is dead quick and easy to use:

Encrypto (free)
https://macpaw.com/encrypto

- So...check, and if necessary, change the formatting of your USB flash drive to exFAT.
- Both you and your recipient should download a copy of Encrypto from the above site.
- Use Encrypto to encrypt/password protect your files on your Mac.
- Copy your files to the USB flash drive.
- Send the USB flash drive to your recipient.
- Talk to your recipient and tell him/her the password that you chose.
- He/she should copy the files to their Windows computer and use Encrypto to decode them.
- Bob's Your Uncle!

 

[ferrarr]

I have had more issues with exFAT formatted drives than any other formatted drives. When using them with winOS and macOS. exFAT

 

[Rod]

Uh, guys. MS-DOS is an operating system. FAT32 is the file system you are trying to refer to. And it was introduced with Windows 95.

Woops, yes of course you're right, that was what I meant.

 

[IWT]

FAT32 is the file system you are trying to refer to.

Well said. I got it wrong.

exFAT is the best option as stated. Got that right

Ian