Solved – How to Password Protect USB Drive Free Windows 10

Nowadays, USB flash drive is widely used in our daily life since it is portable and it can also hold a lot of files and data. And now, data security and privacy have become a heated topic, so more and more people would like to protect USB drive. This would prevent thieves from stealing the contents of your storage devices.

So, in order to secure your data and USB flash drive, you can choose to encrypt a flash drive. At the same time, this post will show how to password protect a flash drive.

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Password Protect USB Drive – BitLocker

In order to password protect USB drive Windows 10, you can choose to encrypt the flash drive via BitLocker, which is a free and Windows built-in tool. The BitLocker is available in Windows Pro and Enterprise versions.

Now, we will show you how to password protect USB drive free with the step-by-step guide.

1. Connect the USB drive you want to encrypt to your computer and find it in File Explorer.

2. Right-click the USB flash drive and choose Turn on BitLocker.

3. In the pop-up window, you are required to choose how you want to unlock the USB drive. It is recommended to check the option Use a password to unlock the drive. Then enter your password and click Next to continue.

4. Next, choose how to back up your recovery drive in case you forget the password or lose your smart card. You can choose to save to your Microsoft account, save to a file or print the recovery key. Then click Next.

5. Choose how much of your drive to encrypt. Here are two options: Encrypt used disk space only (faster and best for new PCs and drives) and Encrypt entire drive (slower but best for PCs drives already in use). Then click Next to continue.

6. Choose which encryption mode to use. Here are also two available, you can choose either one based on your own needs. Then click Next to continue.

7. After that, you will receive a confirmation message, read it carefully and click Start encrypting to encrypt a flash drive.

After that, the USB flash drive has been blocked by the password. If you plug the USB drive into computer again, you will receive a warning message which tells you that the drive is BitLocker-protected. At the same time, you will see a lock on the USB drive icon.

If you want to access the USB drive, you need to input the password first. 

However, if you want to password protect USB drive Windows 10 without BitLocker, you can utilize a piece of third-party software to choose to purchase an encrypted USB drive.

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However, if you don’t want to encrypt a flash drive, you can choose to turn off BitLocker.

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2 Easy Ways to Turn off BitLocker

In order to turn off BitLocker, here are two available ways. You can choose to turn off BitLocker via Control Panel or formatting it.

Way 1. Turn off BitLocker via Control Panel

You can choose to turn off BitLocker via Control Panel.

Now, here is the tutorial.

1. Open Control Panel.
2. Choose BitLocker Drive Encryption.
3. Expand the BitLocker-protected drive and choose Unlock drive.
4. Then input the password.
5. Then click Turn off BitLocker.

Way 2. Turn Off BitLocker Through Formatting

If there is no important file on the USB drive, you can also remove USB flash drive security by formatting it.

Hence, just right-click the encrypted drive and choose Format from the context menu to continue. After that, you have removed the security protection from the USB drive.

Related article: How to Format a Hard Drive with Ease in Windows 10/8/7? 

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Final Words

To sum up, this post shows how to encrypt a flash drive. If you want to secure your USB drive, you can choose to password protect USB drive. If you have any different opinions of putting password on USB flash drive, you can share it in the comment zone.