Now, click on the “Choose” button to format and encrypt your drive. As done previously, set a strong password and enter any hint if you want to. Select the “Mac OS Extended (Journaled, Encrypted)” option from the drop down menu as shown in the image below.Ĥ. Give the drive a name and then click on the “Format” option. Select your external drive from the left side menu and then click on the “ Erase” button. Remember that if there’s any data on the drive, it will be deleted using this process.ģ. Open the Disk Utility Tool by searching for it in Spotlight or by going to Finder->Applications->Utilities->Disk Utility.

Disk Utility Tool will allow you to create partitions on your hard drive and then encrypt the partition you want to encrypt.ġ. The main use of Disk Utility Tool is when you don’t want to encrypt the whole drive but only a part of it. Hence, it is suitable only for a new hard drive. One thing to keep in mind is that this method will erase all your data before it encrypts the hard drive. You can also encrypt your external hard drive using the Disk Utility Tool.