Privacy Drive 3.17

Overview

Safekeep you critical data from prying eyes by using Privacy Drive software which lets you lock, encrypt, and hide all types of files, photos, videos, and documents. It is a very user-friendly data encryption software that utilizes Virtual Disk and “On-the-Fly” Disk Encryption Technology to create virtual disks to save encrypted data. It even lets you apply password protection on the virtual disks so that they are inaccessible to unauthorized users. Whenever data has to be stored or retrieved to/from these disks, it is automatically encrypted or decrypted and so user intervention is not required.

Installation

Installation process is quick and involves very simple steps. There are no third-party products or adware offered during its installation but it is recommended to close all other running applications. You need to confirm basic details like setup destination path, folder for program’s shortcut, Desktop icon creation, and whether you want to associate the software with .pdv file extension or not(it is suggested to accept this option). System restart is also required to successfully complete the software’s installation. It is supported by these Window versions:  Windows 2008/XP/Vista/7/8 (32 and 64-bit).

Interface

The GUI of Privacy Drive is pretty clean, modern, and instinctive. A very useful feature of its interface is the welcome guide shown at its launch which offers to perform operations like Open, Create, or Mount encrypted volumes. It uses a well-organized interface where all the fields are grouped nicely making it easy for anyone to figure out its working. All the main functions are displayed in the toolbar at the top; the list of existing hard drives, devices with removable storage, and drive letters (for new disks) is shown in the left panel. The upper right panel shows the list of files for the selected hard drive and the lower right panel shows the drive’s details like free space, used space, capacity, type, file system, and so on.

Pros

• It spares you the hassle of manually encrypting or decrypting the encrypted file or folders, as it uses Virtual Disk and “On-the-Fly” Disk Encryption Technology to automatically perform these operations
• You can create new encrypted volumes which are basically special container files to store encrypted data. The encrypted data  can be saved to a container file of any extension other than its default .pdv file extension
• This application gives you the ability to lock away and hide all your important data such as files, folders, audio files, photos, and more from unauthorized users. What’s more is that you can apply password-protection to these files so that only you have their access
• It allows you to mount an encrypted volume to virtual disks; these virtual devices can be used to access the encrypted data such as images, documents, videos, files and folders (from the encrypted volumes)
• When you create a new encrypted volume, you can define its several attributes such as the size (GB), description, location, encryption options (Algorithm, Mode etc), Drive letter, apply password to it and choose to mount it as a hard disk or a removable disk
• Privacy Drive supports AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) 128-bit and 256-bit Industry Standard encryption algorithms which are ideal for protecting commercial and personal information
• This accessible application lets you drag and drop the files/folders to be encrypted, just like you do it in a normal hard drive
• It offers great degrees of portability for protected data since the encrypted volumes can be transferred through emails, uploaded or backed up from Cloud Servers (like Google Drive or Dropbox), or stored in external storage drives like USB drives, Firewire drives, CD/DVD

Cons

• Trial version can be used for 15 days only
• Trial version allows protection with only the default password (it cannot be changed)

Alternatives

Folder Lock is a comprehensive file security software that can lock, hide, encrypt, and password-protect your important data including files, folders, drives, images, and documents. CryptoForge encryption software lets you encrypt and decrypt files, folders, and drives from within Windows Explorer or My Computer (with right-click).

Conclusion

Privacy Drive is a very user-friendly encryption software, thanks to its simple interface. Most importantly, it provides high level of security as it is impossible for anyone without its password to access or view your critical data. Additionally, it is highly portable so you can easily store your encrypted volumes on any type of media. Use of this software is highly recommended in its trial period, after which it can be bought at a reasonable price.