How To Protect A USB Drive by password In Windows

USB drives or flash drives are a small storage drive that can hold hundreds of GB of data in the form of files and folders. People prefer to use USB drives due to its portability, reliability, and ability to store as much data as you want.

People who work on multiple computers throughout the day then have to plug in and play the USB drive to access all their programs and data.

If someone stole your USB drive and used the data in an illegitimate way, you could become a victim of identity theft. Before storing valuable information on your USB drive, you must first learn how to protect it.

To keep your USB drive privacy and security, I have come up with some solutions that will encrypt your drive and no one can access the data without your permission. You can buy a secure flash drive, encrypt the drive or individual files. 

Step 1: Insert the USB drive into your computer and launch “This PC” in Windows Explorer. Then, right-click on the drive and click on “Turn on BitLocker”.

Step 2: Check the box that says “Use a password to unlock the device” and enter the password twice. Click on “Next”.

Step 3: On the next window, you will be asked to back up your recovery key. In case you forgot your password, you can use the recovery key to open your password-protected USB drive.

Step 4: Now, select the “Encrypt entire drive” to encrypt the drive instead of an individual file. On the next window, select “Compatible Mode” under “Choose Which Encryption Mode”. The process of encryption will be started and wait for a while until it encrypts your entire drive.

After the process is complete, you can plug your drive into any computer and it will ask you to provide a password to unlock the drive. If you forgot your password by mistake, you can use the recovery key to reset the password again.

Also read: Things To Check When System Restore Is Not Working

An article by Munna Suprathik