USB flash drives are inseparable data storage tools for everyone at present, especially for on-the-go professionals to transfer files, boot OS, and many more. On the other hand, these flash drives can be a cause of great anxiety if they are not properly protected. USB flash drives are so portable and it happens quite often we leave them lying around. So, if we lose it, anybody can get access to our important data stored in it directly, leading to the possibility of misuse. Even deleted files can be recovered or subjected to USB threats. That’s why we need to put a password on a flash drive for added protection.
If you are inquisitive to know how to put a password on a flash drive, here we are to help. There are many quick tricks to password protect your computer and we will show you the easiest and most dependable method among them.
Table of Contents
Password Protecting a Flash Drive Using BitLocker to go
BitLocker puts encryption on the data which makes you provide a password and only then you can open the contents. Let’s go ahead and follow the steps.
- Plug the USB stick into your computer first.
- Going to the file manager, right-click on the icon of the USB flash drive. Therefrom the options, you have to click on “Turn on BitLocker”.
- When the BitLocker is loaded, you will see a window asking you to set a password to unlock the drive next time. You have to type and then retype a strong password there. You have to put in this password each time you want to connect the flash drive to the computer. Now, click “Next” to proceed.
- You can save a backup of the password to a Microsoft account, to a hot mail account, or any file. Also, you can print a recovery key. This will help you to recover the drive, in case you forget your password, which is quite natural.
- Going next, this will ask you to choose how much of the drive you want to encrypt. You can encrypt the whole space of the flash drive or you can only encrypt the contents inside. The first option puts only the content inside the drive into a secret code. You can choose any of them according to your convenience. For now, after selecting the first option, we will click on Next.
- Next, this will ask you to choose an encryption mode. Making sure that the second option, the compatible mode is selected, proceed next, and start encrypting. This compatible mode sets the password to work on any computer and the first one makes the password to work only on your computer.
- Finally, when the process is completed after a few moments, you will see a lock icon on the flash drive. Eject the flash drive and put the drive in again to check if the password is set correctly.
Learn how to reset a firmware password in this article.
Final Verdict
Pretty much we all use USB flash drives for storing and sharing our important pictures, videos, or documents. Password protecting your flash drive is a great idea to protect the crucial contents stored inside and avoid possible misuse. In this article, we tried to summarize and explain the steps of how to put a password on a flash drive using BitLocker vividly. It is a good way to shield the drive without using any random software.
