password protect a thumb drive, suggestions pls

[jwaterdawg]

I want to tap into the collective brainage of bt3. I use a thumb drive at work for carrying around useful files (about 1GB's worth). There's nothing like super-secret on it, just stuff I would rather not get out, like solutions to homework problems, test answer keys, etc.

I would like to try out some low level protection on the drive that can be used on any computer without having to install any software on any of the computers. I recognize that password protection is only low level, in the sense that there are pretty good password crackers out there. However, I can't really afford the overhead associated with encrypting and decrypting the contents every time I need to use it. And since I use it on several different computers at work, I would rather not have to install anything on the computer itself.

So my question is, what is available that is _free_ for password protecting a thumb drive with this much data on it? The only free ones I have found so far are either full-blown encryption (like pgp) or limited to content < 25 mB.

Is my only option to buy a bio-protected drive? Can you tell I'm a cheapie?

PS:
BTW, if you use a bio protected drive, do you like it? Does it work well? Even with sawdust on your fingertips?

[abzpress]

Take a look at these. I've used the ver. 1 for years, works great. Should do exactly what you want.

http://www.lexar.com/jumpdrive/jd_secureII.html

[crokett]

Windows XP will encrypt data for you but I believe you have to have an account on whatever machines you plug the drive into to access the data.

[linear]

http://www.truecrypt.org/

Probably more featureful than you need, yet free and open source.

Take a look at "traveller mode."

[sacherjj]

Lexar passwords are a joke, as far as security is concerned. It uses a 256-AES encryption, which is a solid method of securing data. However, the password is stored on the card in the unencrypted portion and fairly easy to decode (unless the have changed the design since the first time we security audited them for our use.) Most of the public won't be able to get in them, just as most of the public can't get into WEP encrypted wireless. However, those who know how can get into either in minutes.

I would second truecrypt as well. If you are going to bother with security, at least do it properly. I use traveler mode with my USB drives and it works great. The other advantage of this over just a Lexar device is that you can use TrueCrypt "drives" on laptops or other computers and store confidential data there. If companies did more of this, we wouldn't see all those messages about personal data in the wild.

[jgscott987]

I use Remora USB Disk Guard. Unlike TrueCrypt, it doesn't require Administrator Privileges to encrypt or decrypt files. Remora is also free.

http://www.richskills.com/products/7/freeversion.asp

EDIT: After further review, I am no longer using Remora USB Disk Guard. The program writes the unencrypted files to the flash drive when you unlock the drive. Due 'wear leveling' software built into all flash drives, this could potentially leave your information available for recovery, even after you have re-encrypted the files. This is a complex but well-documented problem for flash drive security.

TrueCrypt never writes unencrypted information to the drive. It encrypts and decrypts files on the fly, in memory. I have now switched to TrueCrypt.