Cannot partition USB Flash Drive

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Level 1

8 points

Cannot partition USB Flash Drive

Hi,

I have recently bought a 32GB USB Flash Drive which I carry on my house keys. I want to create two partitions one of which I would like to be password protected, the second open and accessable without a password.

I know how to partition a drive as have successfully done so with my external back-up drives. However after partitioning the USB Flash Drive one of the partitions will not mount, moreover it does not take on the name I try to give it but defualts to "disk1s2". This unmountable partition cannot be verified or repaired.

Has anyone come across this, is it a fault with the drive or is partitioning flash drives just not possible?

Thanks,

D

Mac OS X (10.7.4)

Posted on May 20, 2012 4:51 AM

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Answer 1

thomas_r.

Level 7

31,989 points

May 20, 2012 5:23 AM in response to duds888

This is not a direct answer to the question of partitioning a flash drive, but there's a better solution. Create an encrypted disk image file and put that on the flash drive. Store all your sensitive files in there. This works on all Macs without the need for any third-party software, though not on Windows machines. So if you need to access that data from a Windows machine as well, you'll need to find another solution.

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Answer 2

duds888 Author

Level 1

8 points

May 20, 2012 5:31 AM in response to thomas_r.

Hi Thomas,

Thanks for your response. Yes I had thought of that and it could be an option as presumably I can set the size o fthe encrypted disk image and leave a portion that is not password protected?

I'm not so worried about any data being stored in the encrypted disk image being readable by Windows, so long as the portion left (though not password protected) could be viewed, copied from on a Windows machine.

One last Q, so the encrypted data is safe on all platforms. I.e if I lost my USB and someone with Windows tried to access the data they wouldnt be able to?

Thanks,

D

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Answer 3

thomas_r.

Level 7

31,989 points

May 20, 2012 5:43 AM in response to duds888

You can not only set a size for the disk image file, you can also make it a "sparse bundle" that is capable of growing as necessary to accommodate whatever you put in it. Much better than a partition.

And yes, the data is secured on any platform. If you lose the flash drive, there's no way with current technology for someone to decrypt that file and get your data out, unless you choose a weak password that they are able to guess.

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Answer 4

duds888 Author

Level 1

8 points

May 20, 2012 5:46 AM in response to thomas_r.

That's fantastic. Thanks for your help.

One final question. With the 'sparse' option will the bundle shrink in size also? Say it's 2GB and it expands to 4GB if I remove those files will it return to it's original size?

Thanks,

D

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Answer 5

thomas_r.

Level 7

31,989 points

May 20, 2012 5:49 AM in response to duds888

No, sparse bundles only grow, they don't shrink. There are ways to shrink them, though. See:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sparse_image

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