Encrypt external USB disk

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jkingma
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Joined: Wed Oct 21, 2015 2:15 am

Encrypt external USB disk

Post by jkingma »

Hi!

I use an external USB disk as backup.

Is it possible to encrypt this external disk, so that it can be detached save- and securly?
QNAP TS-453mini
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OneCD
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Location: "... there, behind that sofa!"

Re: Encrypt external USB disk

Post by OneCD »

Yes, but you'll need to encrypt it when you format the drive through the QTS Control Panel -> System Settings -> External Device -> External Storage GUI.

Ensure there's nothing on the drive first. ;)

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kevin.richards
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Re: Encrypt external USB disk

Post by kevin.richards »

can we encrypt it using the QTS control panel? or do we encrypt using windows Bit locker etc? sorry, for the question as I don't meddle with the advanced settings much.
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OneCD
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Re: Encrypt external USB disk

Post by OneCD »

Yes, you'll be able to encrypt using the QTS Control Panel when you format the drive.

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Meikl
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Re: Encrypt external USB disk

Post by Meikl »

Hi,

I also got a question regarding encrypting an USB drive:
How can I access the encrypted files? Is it possible to access the files directly from a Windows PC in case the NAS which encrypted it is broken?

Regards, Meikl
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OneCD
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Re: Encrypt external USB disk

Post by OneCD »

Hi and welcome to the forum. :)
Meikl wrote:Is it possible to access the files directly from a Windows PC in case the NAS which encrypted it is broken?
This has been asked many times in the forum. Please try the forum search at the top-right of each page. It works very well! ;)

Or, for the 'official' answer from QNAP: https://helpdesk.qnap.com/index.php?/Kn ... windows-pc

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StardustOne
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Joined: Sat Sep 15, 2007 5:18 am

Re: Encrypt external USB disk

Post by StardustOne »

I tried with my external USB drive. Once a drive is encrypted via QTS, you can only use this drive again with a QNAP NAS. The data on the encrypted USB disk cannot be read back from Windows 10. In order to not get yourself into trouble, do not use the drive enryption in QTS. Just leave the drive as it is and use NTFS for Windows 10. Do not go with Ext4, because you will then not be able to read it (again) without having additional tools or set Windows 10 up to read from Ext4 partitions.

This information is also not clearly documented in the manual, it only explains what the options do. Not what you need to do to have questions such as "can I read the data then from a Windows PC" answered.
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dolbyman
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Re: Encrypt external USB disk

Post by dolbyman »

just open a new thread or a ticket with qnap...why dig up several 4 year old ones?

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