How To Encrypt Hard Drive Windows 10

If yous have a portable or external hard drive that contains a lot of personal or valuable information, information technology is vital that you make its contents secure. An external hard drive is an excellent fashion to back up your information, just it likewise risks condign lost or stolen. If this happens, thieves volition accept access to your sensitive data.

In this guide, we explain how to encrypt an external hard drive so your information remains private no matter what happens.

What kind of data must you encrypt?

Beneath we have outlined the types of data that it is essential to encrypt on a USB peripheral such as a USB dongle or external hard drive:

Personal documents and information (passport scans, bills, photos, etc)
Financial reports and data
Intellectual property
Consumer data that must exist protected for compliance purposes
Enquiry and development info
Confidential information (journalists, lawyers, etc)

How to encrypt an external hard bulldoze

Below we will explain how to encrypt an external difficult bulldoze both on Windows and Mac. Each Operating System has native solutions for encrypting files and folders. In this guide, nosotros volition explicate how to apply those native tools – and reliable tertiary-party solutions – to encrypt your data.

Encrypt an external hard drive on Windows

If y'all want to encrypt an external difficult bulldoze on Windows Vista or later, the best method is to use Microsoft's native encryption tool BitLocker.

BitLocker is bachelor on many Windows computers, so information technology won't price you a dime to apply. The just caveat is that BitLocker is simply available on professional editions of Windows, which ways that dwelling users are out of luck.

If you have a professional person edition of Windows 7, viii, or 10, you can follow the steps beneath to utilize BitLocker to encrypt your portable drive.

Bitlocker

How to encrypt an external bulldoze with BitLocker

Connect your external difficult drive to your Windows PC via the USB port.
Open up Windows Explorer and locate your external drive.
Right-click the target drive and select Turn on BitLocker.
Click on Enter a Countersign.
Enter a secure password and make a note of that countersign somewhere condom.
Now select How to Enable Your Recovery Central. You will use this lawmaking to access your drive if you lot lose your password. You tin can save information technology on your difficult drive, save information technology as a file to a USB drive, salvage the cardinal to your Microsoft account online, or impress information technology.
Choose Encrypt Entire Drive. This option also encrypts files that take been marked for deletion, which improves your security.
Unless yous require your external drive to exist uniform with older Windows machines, select New Encryption Mode.
Click Start Encrypting.

If y'all don't accept BitLocker scroll downwardly to discover out how to utilise a third-party encryption tool instead.

Encrypt an external hard drive on Mac

If you want to encrypt an external hard drive on a Mac, y'all tin can practise so by using the native FileVault 2 application. To encrypt an external difficult drive or USB dongle with FileVault follow the steps below.

Encrypt mac logo

Please conduct in heed that to encrypt a USB bulldoze using FileVault you will need to format information technology get-go. Thus, y'all should remove all the data and back it upward elsewhere before encrypting the drive so that you can add together the information back to the bulldoze after you have created the encrypted book.

Connect your external hard drive to your Mac via the USB port.
Select the drive from your desktop, right-click, and select Encrypt
Enter a potent countersign into the fields provided (y'all must enter it twice)
Create a password hint only you will understand. It is vital that the hint does non make the password obvious.
Click Encrypt disk.
Yous tin at present place your files back onto the encrypted drive, and you volition require the countersign each and every time you mount the drive to access its contents.

If y'all haven't got a professional edition of Windows, y'all can still encrypt your external hard drive. There are many third-political party tools available on the market that will easily let you to encrypt your portable drives.

Below nosotros have explained how to encrypt an external drive using a third political party tool chosen VeraCrypt. VeraCrypt is available on both Windows and Mac, which ways you can use it to encrypt an extrenal hard bulldoze on both Operating Systems.

Before yous can begin, you must download an application for encrypting your hard drive. We recommend VeraCrypt but you can opt to use any encryption programme that you prefer.
Connect your external difficult drive to your reckoner via the USB port.
Backup all the data from your external difficult drive to ensure it is safe. (If something goes incorrect – or you lot make a error – you could format the bulldoze and lose all your data. For this reason, it is recommended that y'all back up all your data to a cloud backup service start.
Launch the encryption program and select Create Volume. You will now become three encryption options:
1. Create encrypted file container
2. Create a not-organization partition/drive
3. Create a system division/bulldoze
You are encrypting an external hard drive then select non-system partition/drive
Depending on which encryption plan you use, you may now be asked to select the type of volume you desire to create. You lot volition be given the pick to selection either standard or hidden volume. For well-nigh use cases, a standard volume is fine.
Now it is time to select the drive. Choose the external hard bulldoze from the list of drives. (Remember disks that y'all volition need to pick a partition if your external difficult drive is partitioned.)
Once yous have selected the drive you want to encrypt and checked that the file path is correct, click Next.
Depending on the program you lot utilise, yous will now be asked to option how you desire to encrypt the bulldoze. You lot tin can either format the drive and start all over again (your current data will be lost); or you tin encrypt the data that is already on the drive:
- Create encrypted volume and format it
- Encrypt drive in place
If yous want to encrypt your external bulldoze and keep all the information that is on it, y'all must select Encrypt drive (or segmentation) in identify.
Depending on what program you lot use, y'all volition at present exist asked to select which encryption algorithm to use. We recommend using the default settings, every bit these are secure. If you aren't sure what to select, check with the service you are using.
If y'all encrypting an unabridged hard disk, y'all may now be served a message that shows you lot the size of the hard drive. Accept and click Next.
You volition now be asked to provide the password for decrypting your bulldoze. Call up to make a notation of this password to go along it safe, if you lot lose information technology you won't be able to access your data. Make sure yous pick a robust password with upper and lowercase characters, numbers, and symbols.
Finally, it is fourth dimension to encrypt the device. Agree to any default settings and add together random data if asked to do then. The encryption process will now begin. It may have a long time depending on the size of the difficult drive.

Please remember that guide above is a general overview of the process (using VeraCrypt as an instance). The encryption program you employ will have its own guide, and although the steps volition be very similar, it is worth using that application-specific guide.

Mounting the bulldoze: Warning

When you connect your encrypted drive to your calculator after encrypting it, the Operating System may ask you whether you want to format the drive.

Your organization asks you lot this because the bulldoze appears to be an unformatted RAW drive. If y'all are served this message, y'all must click cancel, and instead mount the drive to your figurer to access its encrypted content.

Do not format the drive, or yous will lose your encrypted information, and you volition not be able to recover it.

To mount the drive, open your encryption program, select the drive you want to mount and enter your password. The drive will now decrypt and be mounted so that you lot tin can admission the data.

Create an encrypted folder on an external hard bulldoze (Mac or Windows)

If you want to create an encrypted volume on an external difficult drive (rather than encrypting the entire difficult drive) you can exercise then extremely easily.

NordLocker is a service that allows you to create an encrypted vault on whatsoever difficult drive; including an external hard bulldoze or USB dongle. The service is super easy to use, and y'all tin apply it for free to encrypt 3GB of data.

Nordlocker

Below nosotros have listed the steps for creating an encrypted vault on your external hard drive using NordLocker:

Download and install NordLocker
Create an account and choice a master password
Connect your hard bulldoze to your computer
Open NordLocker and click Add
Choose your external hard drive and create an empty locker
As shortly every bit the locker is created, you tin can drop your files into the locker to ensure they are always encrypted and crave a password

Try NordLocker for costless!

How to encrypt a USB drive on Mac or Windows

Losing a USB drive is even easier than losing an external hard drive. This makes securing the data contained on the USB hub even more important. Admittedly, if your USB but contains a few MP3s – or some other non-sensitive information – you can probably chuck it in your bag without worrying.

For anybody lugging about piece of work documents, personal information, or other sensitive personally identifiable information, still, it is vital to consider the security of that data. For this reason, nosotros recommend encrypting the USB. The expert news is that you can apply the same encryption methods described above to encrypt your dongle.

This is because the dongle is still just an external difficult drive, albeit much smaller. Thus, you can use either a third-party tool or Windows BitLocker to encrypt the drive. Alternatively, you can use NordLocker to create an encrypted locker on the USB dongle, into which you can drag and drib all your sensitive information.

Should I as well backup to the cloud?

Yes. Although creating a secondary backup on an external hard drive is a great fashion to protect the important information held on your PC'south internal difficult drive, it is not completely foolproof.

An external hard drive can be lost, stolen, or even dropped. As a result, you could lose your information. Information technology is for this reason that many people use the iii-two-one backup dominion.

By storing your data in a tertiary location (commonly a deject strage service). You guarantee a greater level of redundancy, which means that you can always recover your data – no matter what circumstances arise. To find a trustworthy deject fill-in service head over to our cloud backup recommendations.