Question: Encrypt a Flash Drive
Beginning with Windows Vista, Microsoft included a feature called BitLocker that enables a user to encrypt the computer's hard drive as an added measure of security. Accessing data from an encrypted hard drive is no different from accessing data from an unencrypted hard drive, but if a thief were to steal the hard drive, the data would be more protected than it would be without BitLocker. With Windows 7, the BitLocker To Go feature allows a user to encrypt data on a flash drive in the same way. To complete this project, you will need a computer running Windows 7 (Enterprise or Ultimate) or Windows 8.1 (Pro or Enterprise), which are the only Windows OSs that include BitLocker To Go. You will also need a USB flash drive, with or without existing data (although it's always wise to avoid experimenting with data you can't afford to lose).
1. Insert the flash drive into the computer. Open Windows Explorer (called File Explorer in Windows 8.1) and right-click the Removable Disk drive listed in the directory. Click Turn on BitLocker. BitLocker will begin initializing the drive, and will preserve any data already on the drive.
2. Check the Use a password to unlock the drive option, then enter your new password twice in the appropriate boxes. Click Next.
3. Where and how you store the recovery key depends upon whether you own the computer you're using or not, and if you have access to a printer:
Ideally, if you're using Windows 8.1 and you own the computer or you're signed in to your Microsoft account, you can choose the option to save the recovery key to your Microsoft account.
You can instead store the recovery key on your computer's hard drive if you own the computer. On a Windows 7 machine, click the Save the recovery key to a file option. On a Windows 8.1 machine, click Save to a file. Choose a location on your computer's hard drive. Another alternative might be to store the recovery key in an online file storage account, such as OneDrive, Google Drive, or Dropbox.
If you're using a school lab computer or a public computer and have access to a printer, click Print the recovery key.
Windows 8.1 only-You can choose whether to encrypt only the part of the flash drive that already contains data, or the entire drive. Future data will also be encrypted. Click Encrypt used disk space only. Click Next.
4. After saving the recovery key, click Next.
5. Click Start encrypting to begin the encryption process. This may take a while if the flash drive contains a lot of data.
6. When the encryption process is complete, click Close. Notice the altered drive icon in Windows Explorer (File Explorer for Windows 8.1).
7. Safely remove the flash drive from the computer using the Safely Remove Hardware and Eject Media option in your taskbar. Reinsert the flash drive and type your password to access the drive. If the computer you're using belongs to you, you might want to check the Automatically unlock on this computer from now on option so you don't have to enter the password every time you use this flash drive on this computer. (In Windows 8.1, you might have to click More options first, then click Automatically unlock on this PC.) This option stores the password on the computer in an encrypted file. Click Unlock. If you see an AutoPlay dialog box, click Open folder to view files.