If you save it to your Microsoft Account, you’ll have a much easier time recovering your data later on since it’ll be stored on Microsoft servers. You can save it to your Microsoft Account, save to a file or print the recovery key. Next, you’ll need to choose how you want to save the recovery key in case the password is forgotten. For most personal users, the password option will be the best choice.

You can choose to use a password, use a smart card or use both. Next, you’ll have the option to pick how you want to unlock the drive. Right-click on the drive and click on Turn on BitLocker. To get started using BitLocker, go ahead and connect your USB drive to your computer. Method 1 – BitLocker on WindowsīitLocker will encrypt your USB drive and then require a password to be entered whenever it is connected to a PC. Whatever method you choose, make sure to always keep everything updated. Secondly, security is always being improved and updates are made to software, firmware, etc to keep data secure. Hacking and exploiting vulnerabilities is extremely hard and requires a lot of technical skill. So is there any point to using encryption? Yes, definitely. Security holes and vulnerabilities have been found in BitLocker, third-party encryption software and a lot of hardware encrypted USB drives can be hacked.

How to password protect a thumb drive