Veracrypt is a freeware drive encryption utility available for all major platforms, including Windows. However, the one we will use in this guide is VeraCrypt. In this regard, there are various options out there that promise to provide strong, on-the-fly encryption (OTFE). If you are running Windows 10 Home on your PC, you have to resort to using third-party disk encrypting utilities to encrypt your USB drive. Encrypting a USB Drive on Windows 10 Using VeraCrypt # Once the drive is encrypted, remove it from your computer. So sit back and wait for the process to complete. It uses the AES encryption algorithm with configurable key lengths of 128 or 256 bits to protect your data.īitLocker To Go is a version of BitLocker drive encryption for removable storage devices that you can use to encrypt USB flash drives, SD cards, and external drives (HDD and SSD) formatted in NTFS, FAT16, FAT32, or exFAT file systems.įollow the steps below to encrypt your USB drive with BitLocker To Go:ĭepending on how much data you have on your drive and the encryption mode you chose, the encryption process can take time accordingly. Encrypting a USB Drive on Windows 10 Using BitLocker To Go #īitLocker is Microsoft’s disk encryption utility that comes built-in on different Windows versions, including Windows 10. However, if your device is on Windows 10 Home, you can use a third-party disk encryption utility. If you are running Windows 10 Pro, Enterprise, or Education, you can use BitLocker To Go - Microsoft’s native disk encryption utility - to encrypt your flash drive. With Windows 10, depending on which Windows 10 edition you have on your PC, you have two ways to encrypt a USB drive. How to Encrypt a USB Drive on Windows 10 # Here is a guide to help you in the process and secure your USB drive with encryption.

If you are on Windows 10, encrypting your USB drive is pretty straightforward. That way, even if an unauthorized person gets hold of your drive, they would not be able to access its files unless they decrypt the drive with its password. To this end, a good practice when storing sensitive information on your flash drives is to encrypt the drive to limit access to its data. As a result, carrying sensitive information on a thumb drive increases the risk of your data ending up on someone else’s computer. However, like any other storage device, USB drives are also susceptible to security risks.

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