CCA Tech How-To's - Creating An Encrypted Disk Image On Your Mac...

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Created	2008-10-14	Views	1417
Modified	2008-11-12	Id	69
Author	netsys workstudy

Main > Mac OS X

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This article will tell you how you can effectively create an encrypted disk image on your Mac computer. An encrypted disk image is a special kind of folder that can be used to store documents containing information that ought to be encrypted.

1. Clear your desktop and double click on your computer's Hard Drive.
2. In the Applications folder, scroll down until you spot the Utilities folder. Double click it.
3. Open the Utilities folder and then scroll down to the Disk Utility icon.
4. Once Disk Utility opens, click on File and select New. From the sub-menu, choose Blank Disk Image.
5. In the window that pops up, fill in the following information: Save As: Encrypted Documents Where: Desktop Volume Size: 100MB Encryption: 128-bit AES encryption The rest of the values can be left as their defaults.
6. Click the Create button. The computer will begin creating your encrypted disk image. A window will appear asking you to generate a password for the disk image. Enter a password into both the Password and Verify fields. Do not have the password remembered in your keychain. To ensure your documents are encrypted securely, do not have the computer remember it for you.
7. The encrypted disk image will take several minutes to create. Once it has been created, you will see an icon appear on your desktop that reads Encrypted Documents.dmg and a mounted disk called Disk Image. To encrypt a document, simply drag it into the Disk Image. The file will be stored there and will be encrypted as long as it remains in the Disk Image.
8. When you're done using your encrypted documents, eject the Disk Image by dragging it to the trash.
9. To access the encrypted documents again, double click on the Encrypted Documents.dmg file on your desktop. This will re-open the Disk Image, and you'll be able to access your encrypted documents.

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