How to put a password on a USB flash drive and encrypt the external drive? step by step guide

If you are one of those who has to be hiding your flash drive or you fight so that they don’t touch it because you have very important information or very personal files, you are in the right place. For this, technology has created methods for some time ago to prevent unauthorized people from seeing your information.

With the help of these methods and tools you will not only be able to lock some files on a USB stick, but also you can create several partitions on your disk and only block one of them, in this way you can be sure that the information you do not want them to see will be very safe, and you will lend the flash drive with confidence. These methods are very simple, to achieve this you just have to know what information you want to protect.

You are in the perfect place to learn everything you need to know about encrypting an external drive since we will teach you this and also how to decrypt those disks that for some reason you need to remove their lock. Simply use the tools that we will teach you so that locking or unlocking a USB is child’s play.

What are the advantages of encrypting a pen drive or external drive?

When you do disk encryption this includes various techniques and tools, which allow you to protect all information stored on hard drives from third partiesUSB sticks and even individual files.

With a password or a complex key you can encrypt the information, mostly with complex algorithms, preventing them from accessing it without any type of authorization.

Logically, the password you set should only be known by you. In addition to this, you will have other advantages such as:

• Being able to keep private information without fear of it being seen by others.
• keep information protected from malware and other viruses.

Something that is essential to be able to do the encryption is that they have to be totally transparent for you (user) and the applicationsin other words, that you can write to all encrypted disks (also folders), the same way you can write to non-encrypted ones.

Advantages of Full Disk Encryption (USB)

This is one of the best ways to make sure no one sees what you’re saving to the removable drive. The advantages are obvious.

• The operating system will work the same on files and folders. as usual person you will not observe any change in your daily operation.
• Don’t worry about the encryption of specific files, the entire disk will be fully encrypted.
• You can encrypt on boot. no one will be able to access the content stored on the disk without the encryption key (if you are talking about internal disk).

Disadvantages of disk encryption

Not everything is profit by applying this type of protection, and although it is often worth it to keep your information secure, It is important that you know that:

• There is a small performance loss on the computer. By encrypting the entire disk, including swap files, the operating system loses some optimizations and this makes its function slower. (if you talk about internal disk).
• It depends how you encrypt the disk, you can subject yourself to risks that can intercept your keys.
• If you lose or forget your encryption key, you lose absolutely everything.

Steps to protect a USB external memory with a password

Now that you know in advance the advantages and disadvantages of encrypt a disk or removable memory, it is time for you to learn how to do it without making mistakes. You will notice that it is an extremely easy process in the main operating systems.

on Windows

When we talk about Windows, it has a security feature, developed by Microsoft, called BitLocker. This is installed by default in all versions of Windows.

• To get started, insert your removable drive and go to windows startup, in the search field you write control panel and open it. When you open it you will find different options to adjust the configuration of your equipment. You will only select where it says “System Y security”.

• Then you will open the window, and of all the options that it presents, look for the option that says “BitLocker Drive Encryption.”

• Later you will choose the drive you want to encrypt (in the sample image the drive is called Kingston8GB).

• Once located, click on “Turn on BitLocker” and you will be able to encrypt using two systems: one with a password, and the other using a smart card.

• Once the process is finished, you will be given a choice where you want to save the backup copy of the key: In your Microsoft accountin a file or if you want to print it.
• You’ll then choose how much of the drive you want to encrypt, in case you don’t want to fully encrypt the USB. If this is the case, the process will be done much faster.

• You will see a new window, where you will have to decide encryption mode: the first one is more suitable for internal disks. For external drives choose the second method, the most compatible mode.
• It will open one more window which will show you alls the options chosen before having to confirm for the last timewhich will start the encryption that, depending on the size of the USB drive, will last less or more time.

When you insert this drive into another computer, you will notice that a read error appears, but then it will show you a notification advising you that the drive is protected with BitLocker. If you click on this last entry, a box will appear where you can write the password so that you can access normally.

on macOS

In case you have a MacOS computer, the procedure is easier. Simply insert the USB that previously has to be formatted. When the device icon appears on the desktop, right click on it and when it opens the dropdown menu you just have to click on the option that says “Encrypt”, and enter the password with which you want to block it.

on linux

In GNU/Linux the procedure is as easy as the previous one:

• Insert the external drive. When the icon appears on the desktop, just right click on it and choose the option that says format volume.
• Before formatting the drive, encrypt it with a strictly personal password and finish the process.

What if I want to unlock and remove the password to an encrypted or encrypted pendrive?

The process for unlock an encrypted USB it is basically the same as for encrypting it, having to apply the processes in reverse. Here we show you how to do it in the main operating systems that exist.

on Windows

As we mentioned before, the Microsoft platform has a tool to encrypt removable disks. if you want now turn off BitLocker For some reason, you have to follow these steps.

• First you insert your pendrive (USB), enter your password and then right click on the drive already protected in the file explorer, when you are there you select the option to manage BitLocker.

• Some options will be displayed, as you can see in the image and click on “Turn off BitLocker.”
• When doing so, a message will appear to confirm that you want “Turn off BitLocker”, click there, so you can continue.

• Once the operation has been processed, you will notice that sends you a notice that the disk has been decrypted.
• ready you did disable external (USB) drive encryption. In this simple way you can lock or unlock this unit whenever you want.

on macOS

If setting the password seemed extremely easy to do, removing the encryption will be much easier. Apply these steps and eliminate the protection that you considered necessary at the time.

• Connect the external disk (USB) that you want to remove encryption. Select the icon of the external drive and right click and then click “Decipher”.

• Enter the password you used to encrypt the drive, in order to start the decryption process. This may take a while, it all depends on the size of the drive.

• You’re done!.

on linux

If you need to unlock your external (USB) drive with Linux, you just need to have the Hdparm application installed, which is a low-level tool that acts as an interface between various Linux kernel drivers and also the storage media. SATA/PATA/SASthrough the library as the average IDE.

Sounds complicated? Then we translate all this into Spanish with the following steps.

• Once the tool is downloaded, you can use the –r option with which you can query the state of the bit with a simple command. To do this, you must know the physical name of your storage device that you want to unlock. Example: if it is called /dev/sdd, you can use: sudo hdparm -r /dev/sdd.
• The value of the device will be shown on the screen. If its value is 1, that means that the “readonly” or read-only mode is active, in other words, it is write-protected, and therefore you will not be able to write anything in memory.
• To disable or modify the bit, just type the following: 1 sudo hdparm -r0 /dev/sdd.

And now when you execute the first command and check the status you will see that it has returned to 0, therefore the readonly mode is off or disabled.

Methods to protect files on a USB flash drive using a strong password

There are many methods to protect your information, here we will show you. Applying each of them is child’s play if you learn how they work.

Encrypt Files

It is the option to encrypt files in a faster way. The problem with this is that you can only encrypt some files. You can encrypt Microsoft Word files, as well as any of the programs in the office package with a password.

An encrypted partition

It is an option to encrypt only some of the files contained in removable memory. In other words, you have the advantage of the previous option, since you encrypt what you want, but you can also do it with each and every one of the files you want.

What you do specifically is partition the memory of your flash drive as if they were two, this way you can encrypt one partition and not another. Everything you keep on the encrypted partition will be protected. This is what it’s for widely used a tool called Rohos Mini Drive.

The generated partition, it has to be a maximum of 8 GB, because this is the limitation offered by the program. The good part is that you will not need any program to decrypt the flash drive, since it will go with you wherever you go. The encryption key is in the format 256-bit AES.

In order to encrypt you will have to use the “Encrypt USB Drive” option either “Configure the USB key”; choose a key for encryption and click on “Createdisk”. To finish, you choose the size and type of file system and finish the process.

Fully encrypt the flash drive

It is an option that will make it impossible for others to access anything on the flash drive without the password. You will be able to do it in Windows by default, so you will not need any program. Of course you will have to be a Windows user on a mandatory basis. The tool to do this is called BitLocker.

What are the best programs and tools to put a password on a flash drive?

Many are the most used tools to be able to encrypt and block an external device as well as an internal one.

Rohos Mini Drive

This is a tool that does not completely block the entire pendrivebut if you split the disk memory into two parts and lock only one part of the memory.

The program’s installation wizard allows you to create such a partition in a very simple way, has a portable version that allows you to run it on all types of computers and thus be able to access this section anywhere.

BitLocker

This tool allows you to put a password on a flash drive which will be used exclusively, together with the Windows operating system. It can be said that the only drawback is that it is only available for Windows. It is located in the Control Panel, which you only have to choose the option “Turn on BitLocker.”

USB SafeGuard

A good alternative for put a password to a pendrive completely. That is to say that this is not for a partition or does not depend on a system function. You can find free versions to protect up to 4GB, but if you want more you can get the paid version.

The encryption system is AES 256 bit and is compatible with windows 10 You only need to copy and paste the file from the USB stick.

granite-portable

It is an excellent tool that allows you to encrypt a USB stick with a password. Its latest version released on the market is fully compatible with all versions of Windowsyou will have to download and run it, you will specify a password that will protect the encrypted folder.

Therefore in the USB will have all the files as usual and an encrypted folder whose content will be hidden unless you access through the Granite app. Being portable gives you the benefit of being able to carry it inside the unencrypted files of the unit.

VeraCrypt

It is an encryption tool that continues the project started by TruCrypt. It has versions available for Windows, Linux, and MacOS. When it comes to encrypting a USB drive it gives you several options:

• Encrypt the entire drive.
• Create multiple partitions on the drive.
• Encrypt a partition of some files.