How to password protect WD My Book 3TB drive that uses Acronis True Image backup SW?

I have a WD My Book Essential 3TB external drive. Owing to problems with WD Smartware backup, I use Acronis True Image 2013 to backup my PC to this drive.

I understand that one can install WD Smartware so that it manages password protection of the hard drive but is *not* used for backup. Is this compatible with running Acronis TI for backup to this drive? If so, are any precautions needed before installing Smartware in this way? If it's not compatible, how else can I password-protect the drive so that it can continue to use Acronis for file & disk backup and recovery? Thanks!