The default approach for storing files on drives other than your boot drive is to get an external storage device and then copy your files to it; however, by doing so you leave open the possibility of someone getting your drive and accessing your data. To secure the files you place on such drives, there are several approaches you can take, including encrypting files or the drive itself, and using special setups to require two or even more physical drives be attached before you can access the data on them. Continue reading
Options for securing external storage in OS X
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When you run various commands and scripts in OS X, you may need to first authenticate the actions you are taking as administrator. While some commands include options for providing authentication, generally you will run the “sudo” command as a precursor to your desired one, in order to promote the desired one to run with full administrative access privileges. 
When some problems such as hard drive corruption occur on your Mac, or if you need to perform account maintenance such as resetting passwords or fixing account permissions, then you will need to use the tools that Apple includes on the hidden Recovery drive that is part of OS X. However, in some cases such as for RAID arrays, you may not have a recovery partition, in which case there are several alternatives you can use, even if you are limited by your internet connection: 
If you have a need to catalog items, be they for inventory of a store, or for assets of a business, you might find yourself needing to create some sort of barcode option for your items. Granted there are a number of well-established software packages for doing so, but at times you may create custom scripts, out of which you might want a QR or data matrix code to be generated. 
The Dock in OS X is meant to be easily configurable, where you can simply drag items to and from it, or resize and position it to organize and manage it according to your needs. However, there may be times when you need to set up a Dock for another user, which may be more significant for a Mac being used in a school, business, or other multi-user environment, and especially true for one which you are managing remotely. 
Gatekeeper is an execution prevention technology in OS X that will block apps from running if they have not been properly certified. It combines with similar technologies in OS X such as quarantining of downloaded files, to give you ample warning that a program you are running may be suspicious if it has not come from vetted sources, such as the App Store. 
