Protecting an external HDD, any advice? :)

Viking Nuke · 13 Jul 2012

Hey guys,

Just bought a Core 1.5TB External HDD and I was wondering if there was a way to keep it protected from viruses and malware and suchlike? I mean can you install an antivirus program on the actual HDD and protect it? It came with Deslock and Bullguard. Should I encrypt it?... My head is spinning :\

Many thanks for any information.

Regards, Sam

EDIT. It has something called Steganos too!

Golden · 13 Jul 2012

Hi,

The best option is to have decent anti-malware protection on the computers that the device will be plugged into.

Regards,
Golden

CB · 13 Jul 2012

Yes. As most of the ext HDD have no self protection against viruses and malwares, the best option we have is making sure that all possible PC to be connected to it are well protected. :)

Viking Nuke · 13 Jul 2012

Hey guys!

Many thanks for your replies :) What you said has most certainly helped me, it really is appreciated. Would something like Spybot or Anti Malwarebytes do the trick do you think?

Regards,

Sam

Golden · 14 Jul 2012

Use MSE and Malwarebytes together for a layered security approach - they will not conflict with one another.

Regards,
Golden

Alejandro85 · 17 Jul 2012

You may use any antivirus you normaly may use, really it has nothing to do with the HD being external, it's the data you put in it and the programs you run on the host computer what matters.
Kaspersky is by far one of the best antiviruses I know. I agree with the Malwarebytes addition from others too. Also, consider encrypting your data if you have sensitive data and any other might have physical access to the device.

pparks1 · 17 Jul 2012

You really have to keep your primary machine clean. Even if you encrypt the drive, if at any point, you have the drive mounted by your computer and your computer has access to the contents, it could be infected.

Don't plug into other machines, don't put on your friends networks, etc. Keep your host machine clean and only keep your external drive attached when you really need it. And also keep a backup of the drive on another drive if the data is valuable.

karlsnooks · 17 Jul 2012

Viking Nuke,
Whether you encrypt an external drive depends upon your needs.

If you need to encrypt the external, then I recommend TrueCrypt:
How to Create Encrypted TrueCrypt Volumes the Easy Way
How To Encrypt Computer Data Using TrueCrypt
TrueCrypt - Free Open-Source On-The-Fly Disk Encryption Software for Windows 7/Vista/XP, Mac OS X and Linux

Before doing that then:
1. format the external as NTFS.

You don't need and don't want all of the junk on that external that came with the external.
You will need NTFS when working with microsoft software.