Password Protect USB Flash Drive

I have searched the internet for this, but can't seem to find it. Is there a way to password protect a USB flash drive? So when you insert the drive, a prompt will ask you for the password before you can view the contents. I see a bunch of applications that will allow you to encrypt certain folders on the drive, etc. I was hoping there was an easier way to do it, rather than having to encrypt and decrypt the file everytime I want to edit it.

Let me know if this is possible.

 

The are programs, algorithms, and devices to achieve this goal. Here is an example of the program approach: http://************/m9mec

Hope this helps.

 

As suggested by chfite, there are many programs (quite a few of them are free) that you can use to encrypt & protect the data on the drive. However, getting the drive to automatically launch a password dialog is not so easy.

Typically, USB drives are not set to be detected as "bootable media". On a CD, for example, you can create a file called "autorun.inf" which will tell Windows (when that CD is loaded) to call a specific file on that CD. This won't work with a USB drive.

With a bit a programming skills and a lot of ingenuity it can be done. In my book, though, it's much easier to just encrypt the contents of the drive.