At a very basic level you can change the access to a folder or hard drive, and i assume that the privileges will remain when plugged into another computer.

Click on the folder or drive and hit Command+i to get info
Look all the way at the bottom under "Sharing & Permissions"
At the very bottom there is a lock, click it and type your admin password.
Now set your permissions the way you like. Example: Set Everyone to "No Access" and make sure you log out of your laptop if you walk away from it. As the admin, you, I am sure will need to be able to see/access the contents in there, so keep the admin privileges or your user's privileges to full read/write.

If they are not logged in as you they will not be able to copy the folder or the drive or even see in it.

I have my external drives encrypted. I go between a Mac & a PC with these drives.
I use and open source free program called TrueCrypt.

google it...

works great .. have been using it for over 2 years now.

my acomdata hard drives use securehd+virtualcd. It has password protection in both pc and mac, and works great.

[www.acomdata.com]

The software it uses to format and add proection can be found here, though I do not know if it will work with any other unit.

[www.techsupportlive.com]

This is the software i used to format my hardware and add security to it. Lemmy know if it is successful.

[www.techsupportlive.com] For Windows

[www.techsupportlive.com] For Mac.

Thanks guys, I'll check em out.

yuh, i didnt even know u could password protect ur shit...

The solutions you guys are posting, are those being used on a drive that is being used as your primary source of videos? I would worry about running software that does realtime encrypting/decrypting while trying to video mix. Just seems like alot of extra resources??

I just think that may be over kill. how many dj;s do you know that are able to get through mac permissions?

I'm a big geek, but even i dont know the answer on that... maaaaybe if you boot to SU mode?? Either way, you probably wont be away that long from your hd?

The software i use will only mount the hard drives after putting in a password. I think truecrypt is almost the same thing, except it does realtime encrypting/decrypting. My solution just mounts the hard drive, and your good to go. In case someone steals my stuff thinking they are going to get a bunch of free music and videos, it wont work. The drive will have to be reformatted to be used.

Yeah but if they plugged their hd into your laptop after you've mounted it successfully, they can just copy from it. does no good.

Indeed, but take into consideration that at a live gig, especially around your own equipment, you would be around your equipment at least 90% of the time, and copying during a live performance would be a very bad idea (usb drop outs).

Well, if you are mixing live, i am hoping you notice someone plugging into your laptop lol. Im talking about when you walk away to take a piss/grab a drink/grab some tail etc...