So sit back and wait for the process to complete.

Finally, tap on Start encrypting to initiate the encryption process on your drive.ĭepending on how much data you have on your drive and the encryption mode you chose, the encryption process can take time accordingly.

If you plan on using the drive on older versions of Windows, choose the Compatible mode.

Select an encryption mode between New encryption mode and Compatible mode.

Choose how much of your drive you want to encrypt: you can opt to encrypt only the used disk space or encrypt the entire drive.

On the next screen, select an option for how you want to save the recovery key from Save to your Microsoft account, Save to a file, or Print the recovery key.

Tick the checkbox for Use a password to unlock the drive and create an encryption password.Click Turn on BitLocker next to the selected drive.On the BitLocker Drive Encryption window, select your removable drive under Removable data drives -BitLocker To Go.

In the Control Panel, click System and Security and select BitLocker Drive Encryption.Click Start and search for the Control Panel.Connect the USB drive you want to encrypt.It uses the AES encryption algorithm with configurable key lengths of 128 or 256 bits to protect your data.īitLocker To Go is a version of BitLocker drive encryption for removable storage devices that you can use to encrypt USB flash drives, SD cards, and external drives (HDD and SSD) formatted in NTFS, FAT16, FAT32, or exFAT file systems.įollow the steps below to encrypt your USB drive with BitLocker To Go: Encrypting a USB Drive on Windows 10 Using BitLocker To GoīitLocker is Microsoft’s disk encryption utility that comes built-in on different Windows versions, including Windows 10. However, if your device is on Windows 10 Home, you can use a third-party disk encryption utility. If you are running Windows 10 Pro, Enterprise, or Education, you can use BitLocker To Go - Microsoft’s native disk encryption utility - to encrypt your flash drive.

Bitlocker usb drive