Portable encrypted USB stick
I would like to have an encrypted USB stick that I can use with Windows and OS X.
I could format it as FAT32 and then have a encrypted image files (more than one due to the file size limitation of 4GB) that I could mount on both, and have the software to do it on the stick itself.
Any suggestion on the best format?
Solution 1:
Buy a USB flash drive that uses hardware encryption, where the unlock mechanism doesn't depend a software client, then format it however you prefer. An example of this would be a USB flash drive with a a biometric sensor which can scan a finger, or a built-in keypad where you can enter a PIN to unlock the drive. Several vendors sell hardware encrypted flash drives like these, including Apricorn and Imation.
Solution 2:
Neither OS X nor Windows have on-board tools to read their mutual encrypted file system (FileVault2 / BitLocker).
The only solution I found so far is using a third-party tool:
BitLocker:
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Dislocker
This software has been designed to read BitLocker encrypted partitions under Linux and Mac OSX systems.
Third party file system:
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LaCie's Private-Public (download page/Documentation). On the Mac side you have to install OSXFuse additionally.
The software seems to be free of charge.
Solution 3:
You could try VeraCrypt, which is a fork of the now-defunct TrueCrypt. This will let you encrypt the whole device and make a Fat32 or NTFS partition inside the encrypted volume. It supports OS X and Windows.
** Note that for MacOSX 10.6 and newer, OSXFuse must be installed as per VeraCrypt's "System Requirements" at https://veracrypt.codeplex.com/wikipage?title=VeraCrypt%20Volume