If you wish to change the password used to securely encrypt your USB flash drive, simply right-click on the drive inside File Explorer and select Change Bitlocker Password. When you are done working on your data, simply unplug it from your computer. Windows will automatically manage encrypting and decrypting your information while it is plugged in to your computer. Please be cautious when considering this option. There is also an option to automatically unlock the drive on particular PCs if you so choose. You will be prompted to enter the password you used to encrypt your drive. To securely use your encrypted USB flash drive, simply plug it into your computer. How to use your newly encrypted USB flash drive You will be notified when it is complete.

Windows will securely encrypt your USB flash drive it should only take a few minutes.

If available, please select Encrypt Used Space Only.

Please note that this file does not contain your password. Save this recovery file in a location of your choosing that only you have access to.

When prompted How Do You Want to Store Your Recovery Key, select Save the Recovery Key to a File.

You can change this password later, provided you remember the original password.

Enter and confirm a password in the spaces provided to unlock the drive.

Select Use a Password to Unlock This Drive.

You will be prompted on how you would like to unlock the drive.

Right click on flash drive and select Turn on BitLocker.

Insert your USB flash drive into your Windows PC.USB flash drives encrypted with BitLocker CANNOT be opened with macOS.įollow the steps below to encrypt a USB flash drive within a Windows operating.Windows 10 can unlock a flash drive encrypted on Windows 7 and vice versa.This guide applies to encrypting a flash drive on Windows 7 Enterprise, Windows 7 Ultimate, Windows 10 Enterprise, and Windows 10 Pro using the built in encryption tool known as BitLocker. This guide will demonstrate how to securely encrypt a USB flash drive within Windows so that the data stored on it cannot be read nor accessed without entering a secure password.

How do I securely encrypt a USB flash drive using Windows? Share & PrintĮncrypting a portable USB flash drive is a great way to prevent sensitive data falling into the wrong hands via data breaches and security incidents.

Secure usb flash drive