Windows has a built-in encryption program called ‘Bitlocker’.
We want to stress that you should backup any data you plan to encrypt. Keep in mind that if you forget the encryption password, the data will essentially be lost.
Steps to get your portable hard drive encrypted on a Windows 10 system:
- Go to the “Settings” app (you can search for it)
- Select the “System” option
- Go down to the “About” pane
- On the right side, there should be a “BitLocker settings”
- You should now see all the hard drives within and connected to the computer. Find the hard drive you wish to encrypt click on it and select “Turn on BitLocker” for that drive. (Your drive should show up under the “BitLocker To Go” heading, with the rest of the portable drives)
- BitLocker will then request for a password. This will be the password used to access the data after encryption.
- It should now begin encrypting your data on that drive. This process can take a long time. It took me about 35-40 minutes for my 30GB thumb-drive test.
That’s it! The drive should be encrypted now. You can give it a test by unplugging it and plugging it back in. When you go to look inside the drive it should ask you for the password.
Special thanks to Warner College of Natural Resources Technology Services for sharing these instructions.