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Computer Encrypt USB Flash Drive

Why and How to Encrypt USB Flash Drive

By Sophia | Last Updated

In our daily life or work, we are often used to set passwords for our electronic devices to prevent the leakage of our privacy or important information. With the increase in demand for mobile wireless office, USB flash drive has become a necessary device for office workers, If you have files containing sensitive or personally identifiable information on your USB flash drive, how should you protect this data from being compromised? Here, we will discuss why and how to encrypt USB flash drive.

encrypt usb flash drive

Part 1:Why Do You Need to Encrypt USB Flash Drive?

Do you really trust that your USB flash drive is secure enough? While USB flash drives make it easy to back up and share data, they also pose a threat to your data security.

1: If you have an unencrypted USB drive on your computer, malicious computer viruses and software can delete all the data on the drive, and no one can guarantee that the computer will always be safe from attack.

2: Even if you are a very cautious person in life, there are still unexpected cases of lost or stolen USB flash drives. What kind of damage will you face once these situations happen?

3: In the age of data, It is not a particularly difficult task to encrypt USB flash drive, and with the help of USB flash drive encryption software, you can encrypt your USB flash drive in a few minutes.

In summary, no matter what files you have on your flash drive, it's definitely a good idea to provide yourself with better privacy by encrypting them!

Part 2:How to Encrypt USB Flash Drive?

Now for the Windows users, you can encrypt the USB flash drive with or without BitLocker to protect the data.

Option 1: Steps to Encrypt a USB Flash Drive with BitLocker

Step 1: Plug the USB flash drive into a Windows computer and access Computer to find the USB Drive. Right click on the drive and you will get the option Turn on BitLocker.

turn on bitlocker

Step 2: Choose the option to unlock the drive. In this step, you are offered two options: use a password to unlock the drive and use my smart card to unlock the drive. Most people will choose the password option. For the password, you need to include uppercase, lowercase, numbers, spaces and symbols to strengthen the security.

choose how to unlock the drive

Step 3: Back up your recovery key. You can save it to your Microsoft account, save it to file or Print the recovery key. From my perspective, it is convenient and useful to save it to the Microsoft account.

how to back up recovery key

Step 4: Choose how much of your drive to encrypt. In this interface, you can have a comprehensive understanding of the two options to encrypt the drive.

how much of your drive to encrypt

Step 5: Decide the encrypted mode. Two options will be available: New encryption mode and compatible mode.

choose encryption mode

For the Windows 10 users, they can choose the new encryption mode which may add more security to the system. If you want the USB flash drive to compatible with the earlier version of Windows, just choose the compatible mode. And for the Windows 7, 8 and 8.1 etc. users, it is possible that they cannot see this screen as the earlier Windows version do not enable the BitLocker option. Therefore, please confirm that your computer is in Windows 1o system.

Step 6: Finish the encryption. You just need to click Compete in this section and your USB flash drive is encrypted with password.

complete USB drive encryption

Option 2: Steps to Encrypt a USB Flash Drive without Bitlocker

Without BitLocker, you can encrypt USB flash drives here using software such as iSunshare SafaUSB Genius.

iSunshare SafeUSB Genius comprises of four function-- encrypt,decrypt, lock,and unlock. It is an amazing tool for you to password protect your USB drives and keep USB data safe. If you wondering how to encrypt a USB flash drive with iSunshare SafeUSB genius, check out this guide step by step here.

Step 1: You should download and install this program on your computer, then launch it.

Step 2: Plug your USB drive into your computer, iSunshare SafeUSB Genius will automatically detect the USB flash drive.

Step 3: Tap on the Encrypt button to continue the next step.

click on Encrypt

Step 4: In this step, you should input the password twice and click the Encrypt button at the right bottom to encrypt your USB flash drive immediately.

enter the password and click on Encrypt

Step 5: After the encryption is completed, it will prompt that the USB drive is encrypted successfully, click OK.

successfully encrypted the USB drive

Only simple steps your USB drive has been completely encrypted. If you want to decrypt the USB, just click the Decrypt button, then input the correct encryption password. After that, the encrypted USB will be successfully decrypted.

decrypt your USB drive

Conclusion:

In the era of data, we should pay attention to the confidentiality of USB flash drive for the security of personal information. But USB flash drive should not become a data security nightmare, a professional USB flash drive encryption software can be a good way to avoid the occurrence of USB flash drive security problems. If you need more information about this, please click here .

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