Enable BitLocker on USB Flash Drives
to Protect Data
Encryption is an effective method of protecting
data stored on portable devices such as USB flash
drives and external hard drives.
Encryption encodes data so that it can only be read
by someone who has the right encryption key
1. Insert the USB flash drive – this can be a new drive, or one that already has data stored on it.
3. After BitLocker has prepared the flash drive, the wizard prompts you to Choose how you want to unlock the drive. Passwords allow a drive to be unlocked in any location and
4. The wizard prompts you to store your recovery key in the event that you forget your password.
Do not save the recovery key on the flash drive you are encrypting.
5. Click on Save the recovery key to a file. In the Save BitLocker
Recovery Key as dialog, browse to a suitable location then
5. When you have finished, click Next.
6. On the Are You Ready To Encrypt This Drive page, click Start
Encrypting.
Do not remove the USB flash drive until the encryption
7. When encryption is complete you’ll see this notification:
• When you open My Computer or Windows Explorer, you’ll notice that the flash drive icon has changed. The padlock indicates that the drive is now encrypted with BitLocker.
• The padlock icon is colored grey – means that the drive is
How To use encrypted USB Drive In Windows 7
1. You will be prompted to enter the password you created when you encrypted the drive in order to unlock it.
You can use your encrypted drive on Windows XP or Vista PCs by BitLockerToGo utility on your encrypted flash drive.
The encryption process does the following:
• Adds an Autorun.inf file, the BitLocker To Go reader, and a Read Me.txt file to the USB flash drive.
• Creates a virtual volume with the full contents of the drive in the remaining drive space.
• Encrypts the virtual volume to protect it.USB flash drive encryption takes approximately 6 to 10 minutes per gigabyte to complete. The encryption process can be paused and resumed provided that you don’t remove the drive.
As a result, when AutoPlay is enabled and you insert the encrypted drive into a USB slot on a computer running Windows 7, Windows 7 runs the BitLocker To Go reader, which in turn displays a dialog box. When you are prompted, enter the password to unlock the drive. Optionally, select
Automatically Unlock On This Computer From Now On to save the
How To Turn Bitlocker Off &
Decrypt The Drive In Windows 7
1. Open the Control Panel and select BitLocker Drive
3. Scroll to the bottom of the page to view your flash drive under BitLocker To Go. Click Turn Off BitLocker where it appears next to your drive.
A small window will appear that contains a progress bar to inform you how well the job is progressing. Depending on the amount of data on your drive, it can take a very long time for this progress bar to reach 100 percent. If you need to remove the drive before the process is complete, click
Forgotten your password
2. Find and open the BitLocker Recovery Key file that you saved before in NotePad. Copy the recovery key code and paste:
3. You will now have temporary access to your drive. Click on
Forgotten your password &
Lost your recovery key
1. If you forget the password and lose your recovery key, it will not be possible unlock the encrypted USB drive and you will lose all the data on it.
Strongly recommend you store your recovery key on a save place where you know.
2. In this case, if would like to reuse your flash drive you can reformat it: (default setting: FAT)
