Password Protect External Hard Drive on Windows 10

In this tutorial, you will learn how to password protect external hard drive on Windows 10. If you are using Pro and Enterprise versions of Windows 10 you can use built-in disk encryptor ‘BitLocker’ to encrypt the external hard drive. If you don’t have windows 10 pro or Enterprise you have to use third party software to encrypt your external hard drives. There are many encryption software available for windows, for this tutorial we will use a free encryption software VeraCrypt which is one of the best and easy to encryption software.

Method.1 How to Password Protect External Hard Drive on Windows 10 using BitLocker.


Step.1 Go to Control Panel->System and Security->BitLocker Drive Encryption.

 Password Protect External Hard Drive on Windows 10

Step.2 Select the External Hard drive and choose Turn on BitLocker.

 Password Protect External Hard Drive on Windows 10

Step.3  Select Use a password to unlock the drive by clicking on the check mark and enter your password. Click Next.

 Password Protect External Hard Drive on Windows 10

Step.3 It is important to keep a backup of your password in case you forget it. you have four options select any method you want I am saving the password to a file

 Password Protect External Hard Drive on Windows 10

Step.4 Now you are ready to encrypt your drive click on start encrypting.

 Password Protect External Hard Drive on Windows 10

Wait for the process to finish depending on the size of the hard drive it will take some time to encrypt your external hard drive.

Method.2 How to Password Protect External Hard Drive on Windows 10 without BitLocker


If you are not using Windows 10 pro or enterprise edition you can encrypt your external Hard Drive by using third party software. To follow along with this tutorial Download and install VeraCrypt → from here

Step.1 open Veracrypt and choose to Create Volume pop up window will appear, select the middle option (Encrypt a non-system partition/drive) and click Next.

 Password Protect External Hard Drive on Windows 10

Step.2 Choose Standard VeraCrypt volume” and click Next.

 Password Protect External Hard Drive on Windows 10

Step.3 click on select device and do the same on the popup menu. Chose the partition you want to encrypt.

 Password Protect External Hard Drive on Windows 10

Step.3 Select Encrypt partition in place and click Next. Keep clicking next by following the instructions until your device is encrypted.

 Password Protect External Hard Drive on Windows 10

Keep in mind you can only access your files using VeraCrpyt.

In order To decrypt your drive open the software and choose the encrypted drive then click on “Select Device” option. Select your drive as did in the 3rd step of the encrypting process.

 Password Protect External Hard Drive on Windows 10

Click on the Mount button and enter your password in the popup menu to decrypt your external hard drive.

 Password Protect External Hard Drive on Windows 10

These are the two easiest methods you can use to  Password Protect External Hard Drive on Windows 10.

Also Read: How to Speed up Windows 10

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