[Gdn8Melbourne]

How can I encrypt my USB drive so that it works out of the box in any platform - mainly linux or windows or rarely mac?

 

[hal8000]

Well I wouldnt give any guarantees but to make a USB file system thats readable across multi platforms, you have to choose a file system that each OS can read and write..
If you intend on windows then there are only teo choices fat32 or NTFS. Linux can read and write to both systems safely but Apples NTFS filesystem is experimental which means youre left with fat32.

Its not the sharpest tool in the box and will fragment, has one superblock and will corrupt easily. As for encrpytion then truecrypt may be one way to encrypt your data.

How To Install & Use TrueCrypt In Ubuntu Linux To Encrypt Files & Folders - LinuxAndUbuntu - Linux News | Apps Reviews | Linux Tutorials HowTo

 

[Gdn8Melbourne]

Well I wouldnt give any guarantees but to make a USB file system thats readable across multi platforms, you have to choose a file system that each OS can read and write..
If you intend on windows then there are only teo choices fat32 or NTFS. Linux can read and write to both systems safely but Apples NTFS filesystem is experimental which means youre left with fat32.

Its not the sharpest tool in the box and will fragment, has one superblock and will corrupt easily. As for encrpytion then truecrypt may be one way to encrypt your data.

How To Install & Use TrueCrypt In Ubuntu Linux To Encrypt Files & Folders - LinuxAndUbuntu - Linux News | Apps Reviews | Linux Tutorials HowTo

Thank you for the nice tutorial. Ubuntu 16.04 app 'disks' presents a default option to encrypt any usb drive while formattiing. Is that inferior to truecrypt?

 

[hal8000]

Its probably not inferior and just as good but most likely wont be cross platform so would probably say only works on linux.
I've not tried it but if you have a spare USB disk you could try it, copy some files and see if windows can read it.