How to Encrypt a USB Flash Drive on Windows 10/11

Last updated on March 14th, 2024 at 12:26 am

Do you worry about unauthorized access to your files and want to keep them safe? If so, then let me tell you that an encryption tool surely helps you magnify the security of your USB flash drive in which you have stored your crucial data that you don’t want to get leaked. But, it is very important to keep in mind that if you forget the decryption key, encryption scrambles your data and makes it unreadable permanently. So, you need to anyhow remember the decryption key. Now, if you really want to know how to encrypt a USB flash drive, then you have come to the right place. Here, I have explained the same. Thus, let’s get started with the guide.

Contents

What is BitLocker?

Microsoft’s BitLocker allows you to encrypt the external/ internal hard drive of your Windows 10/11 PC to protect the stored data. Using this, you can easily convert your encrypted USB flash drive. So, if you want to know how to use it and how it works, make sure to check out the next section below.

What Encryption Does BitLocker Use?

It has one of the most trusted algorithms as its primary encryption algorithm, i.e., Advanced Encryption Standard (AES). With the AES, both encrypt and decrypt processes use the same key for your hard drive protection.

Although there are different third-party encryption tools and protocols available online that use this AES algorithm for its security and efficiency, BitLocker is, in my opinion, the best as it is free to use and built into Windows 10/11 PCs.

Nevertheless, BitLocker supports 128-bit, 256-bit, and, in certain cases, 512-bit AES encryption keys. Also, as we already know, when we use a long password, it’s hard to guess; therefore, the longer the key length, the stronger the encryption.

Why You Should Encrypt Your Flash Drive?

As far as I know, I think we should encrypt our flash drives because USB drives are portable devices that can be used to save and transfer data from one device to another physically. Moreover, this can increase the risk of security breaches and leaks of your personal data that you don’t want to share.

Therefore, when you encrypt your flash drive, it is protected by the AES algorithm, which protects your sensitive information to maintain privacy. Moreover, if you think that this reason is not enough to encrypt your flash drive, then check out these reasons:

Protect Sensitive Information
Prevent Unauthorized Access
Mitigate Data Breach Risks
Comply with Regulations and Standards
Safeguard Personal Privacy
Secure Data Sharing
Prepare for Worst-Case Scenarios

How to Encrypt a USB Flash Drive in Windows 10/11

Encrypted USB flash drives that come to the market will cost you much more than regular USB 3.2 USBs that have an average 32GB capacity. But, when you encrypt manually, it will cost you nothing. So, let’s check out the steps to know how to encrypt a USB flash drive in a Windows 10/11 PC without spending a lot of money.

Method 1: Use BitLocker

If you are a Windows 10/ 11 user, then you may already know that BitLocker can easily encrypt your entire disk, including USB flash drives. However, there are possibilities that as a user with average knowledge of using PCs, you may not be aware of how you can use BitLocker to encrypt your USB flash drive on your Windows 11/ 10 PC. Therefore, if you are one of those, perform these steps:

Connect your USB drive.
Launch File Explorer. To do this quickly, press Windows+E.
In Explorer, right-click the flash drive and select Turn on BitLocker. First, click Show More Details in Windows 11.
Now, wait for the drive to get initialized.
Select a password.
If you forget your password, you will be able to decrypt the drive if you save your recovery key.
Select whether to encrypt the entire drive or only use space. You can choose Used Space if the drive is empty and formatted or Entire Drive if the drive is not empty or formatted.
If possible, use Compatibility Mode to encrypt the drive so that older Windows versions can read it. It’s presumably something you want since we’re encrypting a portable drive. If this drive is only going to be used by one computer, however, you may choose to encrypt it with the newer option instead.
Afterwards, click Start Encrypting and wait for it to complete.

Method 2: Use Third-Party Tool

Now, you know how to encrypt a USB flash drive using BitLocker. But, if you are not able to encrypt it using BitLocker, then there’s good news: there are some third-party tools you can easily use. However, some of the third-party tools are AxCrypt, VeraCrypt, etc. Moreover, you can install any software of your choice and follow their instructions.

How to Decrypt Your USB Drive in Windows

So, as I have already told you about the needed steps to encrypt your USB flash drive on your Windows 10/ 11 PC. But what if you want to decrypt your USB drive? Well, let’s check out how do you dencrypt a USB flash drive

Firstly, open File Explorer, right-click the drive and choose Manage BitLocker. Windows 11 users need to click Show more options first.
In Device Manager, click Turn off BitLocker.
Afterwards, you will receive a warning message, as shown below. Select Turn off BitLocker.
You will need to wait for the USB decrypting process to complete a few minutes. There should be a message indicating your status percentage.
When the encryption process is complete, you will receive an alert that states, Decryption of the [USB] drive is complete. As a result, BitLocker has been disabled for the USB drive.

How Do You Enable BitLocker Using PowerShell?

We all know that Windows PowerShell is a powerful tool with a full-featured scripting tool that gives you a wide range of options for performing advanced tasks, such as enabling BitLocker.

But, to use this feature of PowerShell, you must have to had the Windows 10 or Windows 11 Professional Edition. Meanwhile, if you already have it, open the Windows PowerShell using the Windows Search with admin rights and run this command:

$Pin = ConvertTo-SecureString “205020” -AsPlainText -Force Enable-BitLocker -MountPoint “Drive Letter:” -EncryptionMethod Aes256 -Pin $Pin -TPMandPinProtector -UsedSpaceOnly

Once you successfully run this command, it will start the encryption process, but before it asks you for a password. Now, just wait until the process is done.

Also Read:

So, that’s all we have for you on how do you encrypt a USB flash drive on a Windows 10/11 PC. I hope that this guide has helped you. Until then, if you need more information, comment below.

How to Encrypt a USB Flash Drive on Windows 10/11