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.
Step.2 Select the External Hard drive and choose Turn on BitLocker.
Step.3 Select Use a password to unlock the drive by clicking on the check mark and enter your password. Click Next.
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
Step.4 Now you are ready to encrypt your drive click on start encrypting.
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.
Step.2 Choose Standard VeraCrypt volume” and click Next.
Step.3 click on select device and do the same on the popup menu. Chose the partition you want to encrypt.
Step.3 Select Encrypt partition in place and click Next. Keep clicking next by following the instructions until your device is encrypted.
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.
Click on the Mount button and enter your password in the popup menu to decrypt your external hard drive.
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
