How to password-protect HSF+ disks now that HSF+ encryption not possible?

[wills11]

If I understand correctly, Big Sur doesn't allow me to create an HSF+ encrypted disk anymore—and even when control-clicking an HSF+ disk and choosing "Encrypt", it converts it to APFS.

How, then, can I create a password-protected HSF+ disk on an external USB drive? I don't want to use it for Time Machine—just want to make sure the data on it isn't available should I lose the disk or have it stolen. I had no problem doing this with Mojave.

Appreciate any help—thanks in advance!

 

[Weaselboy]

Create a disk image using Disk Utility on Mac

Use Disk Utility on your Mac to create a disk image.

support.apple.com

You could use Disk Util to make an encrypted disk image on a APFS formatted drive, then put your files inside the disk image.

 

[wills11]

Thanks! And will that give me the benefits (such as they are) of using HSF+ or would the file system still be APFS? I had some issues with the latter on spinning drives and I'm mostly eager to avoid a repeat.

Also, do you have any idea why Apple removed the ability to encrypt HSF+ volumes?

I so appreciate the advice!

 

[Weaselboy]

I think Apple was just wanting everybody to move forward to APFS. But yes, you can make an encrypted HFS+ disk image and store it on an external drive formatted to either APFS or HFS+.

 

[wills11]

I think Apple was just wanting everybody to move forward to APFS. But yes, you can make an encrypted HFS+ disk image and store it on an external drive formatted to either APFS or HFS+.

Thanks again! I heard some horror stories about mechanical drives when APFS first came out, and had one nightmarish experience. Do you have an opinion as to which is better on a spinning HDD today?

 

[Weaselboy]

APFS is optimized for hard drives, so it may not be quite as fast as a HFS+ formatted drive, but APFS is also inherently more reliable because of the way files are copied. For example, if someone were to accidentally pull the plug in the middle of a file move, APFS would be less likely to lose data.

 

[wills11]

APFS is optimized for hard drives, so it may not be quite as fast as a HFS+ formatted drive, but APFS is also inherently more reliable because of the way files are copied. For example, if someone were to accidentally pull the plug in the middle of a file move, APFS would be less likely to lose data.

Oh, good — I’m far more concerned with reliability and happy to sacrifice a bit of speed. I wonder why there are so many articles recommending not using APFS for mechanical drives. In any case — I so appreciate your help and will happily let Apple use APFS!

 

[petterihiisila]

If I understand correctly, Big Sur doesn't allow me to create an HSF+ encrypted disk anymore—and even when control-clicking an HSF+ disk and choosing "Encrypt", it converts it to APFS.

How, then, can I create a password-protected HSF+ disk on an external USB drive? I don't want to use it for Time Machine—just want to make sure the data on it isn't available should I lose the disk or have it stolen. I had no problem doing this with Mojave.

Appreciate any help—thanks in advance!

I made an encrypted HFS+ sparsebundle for Time Machine purposes with Disk Utility. I've got three of those. One lives on an HFS+ USB drive. Another inside a Time Capsule. Third is an ext4 file system, an external disk on a Raspberry Pi.

I have to manually mount the sparsebundles, that's the only drawback. Which I consider being an upside actually, it gives me some control for when it's safe to undock, and when Time Machine will be running.

sudo tmutil setdestination -a /Volumes/sparsebundle_mount_point

APFS disks and sparsebundles work much slower on all those scenarios. Not sure why, but HFS+ is consistently faster. And "faster" means by a factor of 10, once the backups start to accumulate. It's a difference between 3 minutes vs. 30 minutes per typical (small) update.