The amount of time it takes will vary depending on the amount of data on your drive and its size.Īfter the drive is encrypted, you’ll see a lock icon on the drive listed in computer. You’ll be able to monitor the progress while your drive is encrypted. Then click Start Encrypting to kick off the process. That way even deleted data, that’s possibly recoverable is encrypted too. I recommend selecting Encrypt Entire Drive, even though it takes longer. If you select Used Disk Space Only – it’s faster and any data you add will also be encrypted.

Next choose how much of the drive to encrypt. The Recovery key is a string of characters that lets you access the drive even if you’ve lost the password.

Windows asks how to backup your Recovery Key. Next, check Use a Password to Unlock the Drive and type in your Password twice. Click BitLocker > Turn on BitLocker.Īlternately, you can right click the external drive and select Turn on BitLocker from the context menu.

From the new Windows 8 Explorer Ribbon you’ll see Drive Tools highlighted. After Windows recognizes it, go into Computer and find the drive and highlight it. After encrypting the drive with Windows 8, you can use it on XP and higher to read and copy files, but not save to it directly.įirst, plug in your USB flash drive. Note: The BitLocker feature – technically called BitLocker To Go for removable drives - is available in Windows 8 Pro, Windows 7 Ultimate and Enterprise editions.

How to lock a flash drive