How do I Password Protect My USB Pen Drive?
Do you know if you can password protect your USB pen drive? Yes, you can do this. There is a way within Windows to protect your flash drive with a password.
Why Is Password Protection Important for a Pen Drive?
Privacy is important for everyone nowadays. You may have your confidential data, documents, etc in your computer, pen drives (flash drive) or portable hard drives. Therefore, everyone wants to keep their data protected.
We have seen this a few times, if someone comes to you and wants to use your desktop computer or laptop that you cannot deny. You may afraid if they can access your confidential data when they access your system.
Similarly, if you have a pen drive with confidential data in it then what do you do to protect it?
Suppose you have a pen drive with confidential data of yours and you need to send it somewhere else but you are afraid that your data may be accessed or stolen.
So how can you prevent your stored data in a pen drive (flash drive)? or do you know how to password protect a USB flash drive?
Do you know that if you are using a Windows 10 and Windows 11, you have the option to create a password for your pen drive but the question is how?
Follow the steps given below to create a password protected pen drive with the help or Windows 10 built-in feature called BitLocker:
Setup a Password on Your USB Pen Drive
Step 1. Insert or plug in your pen drive into your Windows. Once detected, open Windows Explorer by clicking on This PC desktop icon or using the key combination Win + E.
Step 2. Locate your pen drive and right-click on it. Then select the option Turn on BitLocker from the context menu.
Step 3. The BitLocker Drive Encryption window will appear on your screen.
- Check the box Use a password to unlock the drive
- After that enter your desired password and then reenter to confirm.
Note: Password should contain upper case and lower case letters, number, spaces and symbols - Lastly, click Next button.
Step 4. On the next screen, you will be prompted to back up your recovery key (in case you forgot your password).
Choose an option from the list and then click on the Next button.
Step 5. Now on this screen, do not change anything. You just need to click on the Next button to continue.
Step 6. Again, on this screen, just click on the Next button without changing any options.
Step 7. Finally, you will see the last screen where you need to click on Start encrypting button to start encryption on your Pen Drive.
Step 8. It has been started the encryption on your flash drive. Once completed to 100%, and then you just need to click on the Close button.
Now onward, when you plug this Pen Drive into any computer. First, it will ask for a password to unlock your pen drive.
If you do not provide the correct password, it will not open it and data inside cannot be accessed.
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