Passport essential partitioning

WD External and Portable SSD Portable SSD
1

I have a 500gb Passport Esential, WDBAAA5000ABK-00.  It is new and has not been used yet.  I would like to secure part of the drive.  I would like to be able to have a common area on the drive and also a secure area for personal records.  I have a few questions about how to go about it and use the included SmartWare program.

  1. Can I secure only part of the drive if left as bought, unpartitioned?

  2. Can I partition the drive and have the software secure one of the partitions?

  3. If I partition the drive to do #2 above, does it remove the SmartWare?  Is it possible to download it to reinstall it to the drive?

Any help is appreciated.  Thanks.

2

Smartware is  a software installed on the computer and not the drive. The password protection issue protects the whole drive not just a partition.