To encrypt Macintosh HD, the startup disk, you need to open Disk Utility in macOS Recovery mode. If you forget the password, the drive will turn inaccessible. Enter the drive’s password each time you access it. Step 6) When the erase process is over, the encrypted drive mounts on the Mac. Warning: Erasing a drive will remove all its content, so back up before performing the erase operation. Step 2) From Disk Utility, select the internal non-boot Mac volume or the external hard drive you want to protect via password, then click the Erase tab. Type ‘ disk utility’ and click the Disk Utility search result to launch the application. Or else, press Command + Spacebar to bring Spotlight.

Step 1) For non-startup disk, launch Disk Utility from Finder > Applications > Utilities. To encrypt your Mac hard drive by using Disk Utility, perform the following steps: C. Encrypt or Decrypt Storage Drive using Disk Utilityĭisk Utility has the option to erase your Mac hard drive in an encrypted format-APFS (Case-sensitive, encrypted), Mac OS Extended (Journaled, Encrypted), or Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled, Encrypted). Now, you won’t need any password to unlock your Mac hard drive. Step 2) After decryption, restart your Mac. You can check the decryption progress from the FileVault section. Your Mac decrypts the disk in the background. Step 1) Open the FileVault tab from Security & Privacy, as explained before. When you don’t want to keep your Mac hard drive encrypted any longer due to some reason, you can decrypt your encrypted Mac hard drive by using FileVault. Step 4) After encryption, restart your Mac and provide the login password to finish starting up. You can check the encryption progress from the FileVault section. Your Mac encrypts the disk in the background. Step 3) Provide a password to encrypt the disk. Step 2) Launch Finder, and from the left pane, secondary-click a drive or volume and select the Encrypt ‘Drive_Name’ option. Step 1) Use the internal Mac volume or connect the external storage drive you wish to encrypt. To encrypt your Mac hard drive by using Finder, perform the following steps. MacOS Finder allows you to encrypt or decrypt your internal or external Mac hard drive and volume quickly. Also, learn how to recover data from an encrypted or corrupt Mac hard drive.Įncrypt or decrypt Mac hard drive by using: A. Encrypt or Decrypt Storage Drive using Finder The following sections illustrate the methods in detail. MacOS has several native methods to encrypt and decrypt a Mac hard drive. How to Encrypt or Decrypt Mac Hard Drive? FileVault full-disk encryption (FileVault 2) uses XTS-AES-128 bit encryption with a 256-bit key to help prevent unapproved access to the information on your startup disk. MacOS provides FileVault to encrypt your Mac hard drive that helps protect your data from prying eyes and hackers.

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