Apr 10, 2023 • Filed to: USB Recovery • Proven solutions
How do I encrypt a USB drive? Many people will confront with the problem that the USB flash drives have been attacked or stolen as a result of an unsafe connection environment. USB flash drives and external storage mediums are the main places where data integrity is compromised. However, an unsafe flash drive is one of the most common reasons that lead to data breaches. Users should keep the data safe and secure. Therefore, how to encrypt usb is of great importance.
In this article, we will introduce how important it is to encrypt USB device and introduce 4 different ways of flash drive encryption step by step.
Part 1: Why Is It Necessary to Encrypt USB Flash Drive?
Recently, thousands of tech and non-tech media are starting to advocate personal and business computer users to use encrypted USB flash drives. As a relatively new norm to most people, there are two major reasons for encryption:
1. Data Security
Data security related issues lead to huge losses all over the world. By encrypting a flash drive, only those who have the encryption key file or password know what lies within the data.
2. Data Integrity
The preservation of data is required by many people and organizations and, hence, encryption is widely used. By USB stick encryption, the data is preserved as a whole part, ensuring its confidentiality in all ways.
Part 2: 4 Easiest Ways to Encrypt Flash Drive
In this section, we curated 4 easy ways to help you encrypt USB device. Follow these instructions step by step, and you will get your flash drive data protected.
1. Windows BitLocker
BitLocker Drive Encryption is a free windows tool that allows users to access the best technology for USB flash drive encryption. Using this tool is not simple, and, for that reason, only tech-savvy users should use it. Below is a simple step-by-step process that should allow a novice user to encrypt memory stick without any issues or problems.
1. The path to be followed by the user is Control Panel > System and Security > BitLocker Drive encryption:
2. A list of devices will be shown and the user needs to make sure that the drive that is to be encrypted has BitLocker turned on:
3. The simplest option should then be selected i.e. the password unlock, as this will make sure that the data remains safe and secure:
4. The recovery key should then be generated to make sure that if the password is lost, that key can be used to unlock the device. It should be stored safely and securely:
5. The start encrypting button should then be pressed to start the process:
6. Users should let the status bar complete:
7. The drive encryption has been completed in full:
Now that you have learnt how to encrypt flash drive with BitLocker, you should always remember to keep the recovery key somewhere safe and won't be forgotten. Apart from BitLocker, there are more flash drive encryption software to password protect your USB drive.
Many online tools make the process safe and easy for users. All of these USB drive encryption tools are also free to download and use. This part of the tutorial will discuss which tools the user should use for flash drive encryption. The best tools that are tailored to users' needs have been explained here. The top three encryption tools are as follows:
2. Rohos Mini Drive
This is one of the best and the most used program when it comes to encrypt flash drives and above all, it is free of charge. Simply go to its official website and install the tool onto PC. The program is very simple to use. In addition to full encryption, it also supports partial device encryption:
Rohos Mini Drive is a well-known memory stick encryption software, you can easily encrypt USB drive and setting password like the screenshot above, and you will have a password protected flash drive.
3. Disk Cryptor
Disk Cryptor is also one of the programs which make the flash drive password protection done quickly and effectively. Users should use the program under expert supervision as using it requires some tech knowledge. For this reason, it is to be noted that the wrong use of the program can lead to fatal results and can also damage the hardware. All file systems are supported by the program and you can download on official website.
Using Disk Cryptor to encrypt USB drive is a simple but powerful way. It's built-in keyboard layout and password rating are very user-friendly functions to better password protect USB drives.
4. USB Flash Security
This program is not only free to use, but it also helps to get the best result when it comes to flash drive encryption. This is one of the best programs to encrypt flash drives. It is open-source and 100% free to use. So it is highly in demand. This USB flash drive program has been highly rated by users and. For this reason, you should give it a shot:
Above are the 4 software we recommend to encrypt USB drive and password protect flash drive. To continue, we have another article for you to learn more ways to create a password protected USB flash drive. Moreover, there are also special usb drives that comes with security function. You can learn more at our Top 10 Secure Flash Drive article.
However, besides USB drive encryption, there are chances that you lost the password or the files in the flash drive, no worries, we are going to talk about recovering data from USB drive in the next part.
Extra Tip: Recover Data from Encrypted USB Device
If you lost the data of your flash drive, unfortunately, don't worry! You still have the chance to get lost data back. To recover files from USB flash drive, you can have a try the following tool.
Wondershare Recoverit - Expert in Recovering Data from Encrypted Flash Drives
- Recover lost or deleted files, photos, audio, music, emails from any storage device effectively, safely, and completely.
- Supports data recovery from recycle bin, hard drive, memory card, flash drive, digital camera, and camcorders.
- Supports to recover data for sudden deletion, formatting, hard drive corruption, virus attack, system crash under different situations.
Summary
In this article, you've learned the necessity of encrypting usb flash drive, the methods to encrypt usb drive and how to recover data when your usb drive data get breached before you encrypt it. Here are four methods provided for you to have a try: Windows BitLocker, Rohos Mini Drive, Disk Cryptor and USB Flash EncryptionSo, I hope this article will be helpful for you to solve your problems.
USB Topic
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Sue Wayne
staff Editor