How do I password protect a USB drive?

How do I password protect a USB drive?
I need to set this up—basically, I want the drive to be inaccessible unless a password is entered first. Is there a specific program for this?
It’s pretty important for me. Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks

Some USB drives actually come bundled with a little utility program designed specifically for that purpose.

Then again, you could probably just grab something similar online... Have you tried doing a quick Google search yet?

Yeah, I did. I spent some time Googling, but honestly, nothing really jumped out at me. There’s a mountain of info out there, but it's all pretty technical and alien to me—which is why I'm asking for advice on what to actually pick. To make matters worse, the stuff I'm actually interested in comes with a massive price tag, and you can't even find it on torrent sites. Nothing.

Here’s a quick little hack for you: don't just toss loose files onto a USB drive. Instead, throw them into a password-protected ZIP file.
Make that password long—like, ridiculously long—so it’s basically impossible to crack.

The downside? Well, if you need to change even one tiny thing, it’s going to be slow. The drive has to rewrite the entire massive ZIP archive just to save one edit. Total pain, right?

But, if you’re mostly using the stick as a read-only tool, this trick actually makes things way faster. Since you’re moving compressed data instead of raw files through that narrow USB bottleneck, you might see speeds jump by 150%, 200%, or maybe even a full 1000% when opening stuff up. Just a heads-up though, this doesn't apply to JPGs, MP3s, or MP4s... those are already maxed out on compression anyway.

Come on, just give me the NAME of some program that actually does this!

You’re really going to need to pick up a USB like that one, because otherwise, the software just isn't going to be able to handle it...

Have you actually tried searching "USB lock" on Google?
I can't test anything right now because I'm stuck at the office. Just download some software and see how it handles itself.

true crypt

The SanDisk Titanium comes with U3 software included, which might actually be the fix for those headaches you're dealing with. Personally, I'm pretty happy with how it performs (just my two cents)!

I’ve been thinking that you might be able to pull this off using an autorun.inf file—essentially setting it up to launch an autorun.exe that prompts for a password to encrypt the drive or USB stick. However, that feels like trying to build a skyscraper when all you need is a shed; it seems way more complicated than it needs to be. Honestly, it would probably be much more efficient to just go with what someone suggested earlier: a simple password-protected ZIP archive.

By the way, do a quick Google search for "usb encrypt"

Actually, let me save you the trouble and give you a solid starting point right now:http://lifehacker.com/software/thumb...ive-154465.php