Computer security is a major concern for a lot of people now and protecting your information has never been easier with Mac OS X. In this tutorial we will create an encrypted volume and modify it to feel more like a regular folder.

Before we begin lets look at exactly what volumes and images are. Volumes are much like a USB drive, hard disk or CD, they are a file system that the computer can read or write information to. A common volume you may not think about is your Mac’s hard disk, commonly called Macintosh HD. This is where all your data like music, photos and videos are stored for when you need to open them later. An image is a way of packaging one or more volumes to a single file on another volume. Are you still with me? I know that can sound confusing but think of it this way, have you ever copied a CD? The software copying the CD records the file system (all the information on the CD) to your computer’s hard disk as a temporary place to keep it. The software needs some way to recall this information when creating the copy, thus creates an image containing the volume of the CD. Some common image extensions you may have seen before include ISO, BIN and DMG. In the Mac world the common extension is DMG while the Windows world prefers ISO. Hopefully I still have your attention and I promise this will relate to password protected folders very shortly. Let go ahead and get started. Continue reading →