Encrypting a USB Flash drive
- Insert the USB drive you wish to encrypt whether it's new oneor has existing data.
- Open File Explorer, right-click on the USB drive, and choose "Turn on BitLocker..." from the context menu.
- The BitLocker wizard will start, and it will prepare the USB drive for encryption.
- Once BitLocker has finished preparing the USB drive, the wizard will prompt you to select how you want to unlock the drive.
- Check the box that says, "Use a password to unlock the drive," then enter and confirm a password before clicking
- The wizard prompts you to back up your recovery key to use if you forget your password.
Do not save the recovery key on the USB drive you are encrypting.
We recommend that you store the recovery key or print the recovery key
- If you want to save it to your local drive, click Print the Recovery Key. In the Save BitLocker Recovery Key as dialog.
- Important Note: Attempting to save the recovery key directly to the C: drive will result in an error message. This occurs because the C: drive itself is encrypted preventing direct saving
- Next, choose the printer you want to use on the Print page. For demonstration purposes, we’re using the Microsoft Print to PDF driver to save your BitLocker recovery key.
- After that, specify the destination where you’d like to save the PDF containing your BitLocker recovery key. We strongly suggest to save the Recovery key to your OneDrive.
- The wizard asks how much of the drive you want to encrypt.
You can choose to encrypt the used space only (best for a new drive) or the entire drive (best for a drive already in use).
- Click Next.
- As you are encrypting a USB drive leave the encryption mode set at compatible mode which is for drives which can be moved.
2.5GB of data could take up to 10 minutes.
- When encryption is complete, you’ll see this notification:
- Click Close to close the wizard.
- When you open File Explorer or This PC, you’ll notice that the USB drive icon has changed. The padlock indicates that the drive is now encrypted with BitLocker.
- The padlock icon is coloured grey – this means that the drive is unlocked.
- The next time you right-click on this drive in File Explorer or This PC you will see either Manage
BitLocker or BitLocker Encryption Options in the pop-up menu. (You may see both!) Both offer similar encryption options.
Next contact the IT Service Desk (servicedesk@crdfglobal.org) and let them know that you have a USB flash drive that needs to be approved and you have already encrypted it.