How do I password protect data CD or DVD?

[Big_Boss]

I would like to burn some folders with data onto a CD or DVD. I would also like to password protect access to the entire CD or DVD. I am using Nero 6.3 to burn.

Is there a way to password protect the entire CD/DVD with Nero?

Thanks in advance...

[computeguy]

I guess you really don't read this board much... It's all about copying cd's and dvd's that you own
(that are copy protected)... If the big studios can't stop it.. you can't either

the answer would be a NO.. you can't stop them from reading the data

[Denvers Dawgs]

If they are just data files and not video then you could possibly use winzip or winrar and put them in a zip file that needs a password to be opened.

[Noahtuck]

I guess you really don't read post's to well

He's not talking about copy protecting a dvd video....

You could always rar, zip, ect the files up, password protect the rar, zip, ect files then burn those to a cd or dvd.

I'm sure i've seen other way's but i don't pay much attention as i've never really had to protect something that bad or i just did not leave it lying around for anybody to pick up and put in a drive to see what was on it 8)

[guns1inger]

Short answer - you cannot do this through Nero, and you cannot password protect an audio CD or DVD Video and have it play in any standard device.

Long answer is that for data you have a few different options.

The simplest has already been suggested. All archive programs now support at least basic encryption and password protection. RAR is probably the strongest and hardest to break. You can compress everything into one big archive, or several smaller ones.

There are also programs that will allow to encrypt and decrypt data on the fly. Mostly this is for HDDs, but some support CD/DVD data as well under certain circumstances. The downside with this is you have to have the software installed on all PCs that the discs will be accessed from.