BitLocker To Go will encrypt external hard drives and USB flash drives. Once encrypted, the drive will require a password in order to access it.
In order to use BitLocker To Go to encrypt an external drive, you’ll need to have the Pro version of either Windows 10 or Windows 11. However the drive can be unencrypted (unlocked) using any version of Windows.
It’s a great way of keeping the files on your USB hard drives private. BitLocker go is easy to set up and easy to use, the only caveat is that you mustn’t forget the password you used.
If you were looking to use BitLocker to secure your computer hard drive, check this guide How To Use Microsoft BitLocker.
How To Encrypt External Drive With BitLocker To Go.
Plug in the external drive that you want to encrypt. It can be either an external hard drive or a USB flash, BitLocker To Go works with both.
Click the Start button and then type “bitlocker“. Click on Manage BitLocker (Control Panel).
BitLocker To Go.
When the BitLocker screen opens, you should see your USB drive listed near the bottom of the page under Removable Data Drives.
Click the drive you want to encrypt to select it and then click “Turn BitLocker on”.
Password Protect The External Drive.
After the encryption process has finished you’ll need to enter either a password or use a smart card to unlock it. In this example, I’ll go with the password option.
Select “Use a password to unlock the drive”.
Then type in the password that you want to use, then re-enter it into the confirmation box.
Be sure that you know the password that you’ve just entered. If you’re not absolutely sure, click the Cancel button and start again.
Otherwise, click Next.
Create A Password Beforehand.
You’re going to encrypt the removable drive, so you know that you’re going to need a password. Why not create the password ahead of time instead of trying to make it up on the spot. Have it ready beforehand. It’s a lot easier.
Write it down, or maybe just type it into Notepad.
It’s surprising how quickly we can sometimes forget, make a note before you start. You can always delete the copy later if you want to.
Save Your Recovery Key.
The recovery key will enable you unlock the USB drive in the event that you forget or lose the password. Take good care of the recovery key.
You can save the recovery key to your Microsoft account, to a file on your computer, or print it out.
In this example, I’ll save the recovery key as a file on my computer.
Click Save to a file.
Then save the file anywhere on your PC. Somewhere that you’ll remember where it is.
Click the Next button when ready.
How Much Of The Drive To Encrypt?
When BitLocker To Go encrypts your external drive, it can either encrypt just the files that are already on the drive, or it can encrypt the whole drive.
The main issue here is the time that BitLocker will take to complete the encryption process.
Encrypting the entire drive will probably take much longer that simply encrypting the contents of the drive.
Make your choice and click the Next button.
Which Should You Choose?
It really all depends on the external drive that you’re using. If it’s a new drive, then most likely you’ll be fine selecting “Encrypt used disk space only”. New files will be automatically encrypted whenever they’re added to the drive.
For older drives that might have had sensitive data stored on them previously, select “Encrypt entire drive”. That will ensure that nothing usable can be retrieved from the drive.
Which BitLocker Encryption Mode?
New encryption mode or Compatible mode? It depends on whether you intend using the external drive in computers that are running older versions of Windows.
The new encryption mode is much stronger than the previous version, but won’t unlock if you plug the drive into computers running any version of Windows prior to Windows 10 version 1511.
In this example, I’ll select the compatible mode because I do have some older machines.
Finally double check that you know the password you set and the recovery key is saved somewhere you can get to it.
If you’re happy, click the Start Encrypting button.
After Encrypting A USB Drive With BitLocker To Go.
After the encryption process has finished you’ll need to use the password you set to unlock it.
All the files on the drive will remain encrypted and protected until you do.
Summary.
External USB drives (hard drives or flash drives) are a fantastic way to both store and carry all sorts of data. But they’re portability makes them inherently insecure.
For most of the drives that you own, that’s not really going to be a problem. It’s just the odd one or two drives that you may contain private data.
On that note, make sure to keep your recovery key safe and accessible. The key is actually just a simple text file, so make yourself a few backup copies and store them in different locations. You just never know when you’ll need it.
