How Should I Password-Protect an External Hard Drive?

✴️ You want more than a password; you want encryption. Encrypting an external drive can be done with the right software.

✴️ Protecting an external hard drive
If you have Windows Pro edition and plan to use your external drive only with other machines using Windows Pro, then BitLocker is a simple and quick way to encrypt your external drive with a password. If you need to support Windows Home edition or other operating systems, VeraCrypt can be an excellent solution.

Chapters
0:00 Password-Protect External Hard Drive
0:54 Protecting your information
1:06 We'll show BitLocker and VeraCrypt
1:25 In Windows Pro
2:10 Do not forget your password
2:40 Save key to Microsoft Account
3:20 Encrypt the entire drive?
4:00 Bitlocker is easy to use
4:25 Downsides
5:10 On Windows Home VeraCrypt
6:55 Create a volume
11:40 Opening an encrypted drive
14:50 Encrypt single file

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#askleo #password #drive

[Kevin_M_Hall]

Just a note. Creation of a Bitlocker encrypted drive requires win 10/11 Pro. But you can attach it to a win 10/11 home edition computer after creation and use it just as easily as with a Pro edition.,

[herdesign]

your explanation and soft voice is great, wish more instructors had this approach.

[gemiro]

Hi Leo, great video! To overcome the drawback of installing veracrypt in each device you use to access your data, you can make a partition in the same external drive in which you encrypt your data and install veracrypt portable in that partition. It's a longer and trickier process but it's worth the effort.

[carstenmeyer]

14:31 There is a workaround -- VeraCrypt 1.22 (03/2018) introduced portable mode for Windows, i.e. it does not need to be installed using admin privileges anymore.

That's great news for encrypted portable drives, and e.g. USB boot-devices that need to access encrypted harddrives.

[rich]

Many thanks and it is a great for you, please....I have a Windows and a Mac...for this to work on the Mac, Do I also need to load Vera crypt in the same fashion I did on the Windows PC? Thanks, R

[renkessler]

Very good explanation. I do have a quick question, though. You didn't quite state what the ramifications are of rebooting without dismounting the encrypted VeraCrypt drive. What happens if I forget or when Windows auto reboots to apply Win updates?

[qkqofib]

High-quality video tutorial ... keep it up ...

[whiteobama]

If you're super paranoid then dont use proprietary software because these might still have backdoors installed. I think the best option is open source software like cryptomator, or better yet use existing libraries and encrypt the files yourself. I used python and IPWorks internal libraries.

[leonjones]

Thanks for explaining this to us viewers.

[deRose]

I can't decide what to do. I have a 5TB external hard drive with all my life on it. I've backed it up on 2 more identical drives. What if something goes wrong after I encrypt these drives... It happened to a lot of people when their encrypted drives all of a sudden started malfunctioning due to encryption failure. I could keep them unencrypted: 1 drive in my safe, 1 hidden in my basement and the third one hidden elsewhere. But if they are ever stolen, it would be absolutely devastating. All my important documents, all kinds of sensitive info are on these drives. To encrypt or not to encrypt, that is the question.

[patricktessier]

This information was so helpful... Seriously thank you so much.

Do you know if the files encrypted from Bitlocker can be accessed on a non Windows-Pro device after encryption? Do you also have any preference as far as security from the two? Veracrypt seems pretty secure, but Bitlocker seems super easy. I worry about not having the correct version of Veracrypt in the future and then losing access to my files, or something like that, idk...

[luissan]

Hi, is this the same process to Password-Protect an additional Internal Hard Drive? Ty

[j.d.]

Is WD password encryption like My Book as safe as Bitlocker?

[D.von.N]

What a job. I just hope veracrypt won't have such an issue like the recent XZ backdoor threat. Anything is possible in the virtual world, it seems.

[lrbj]

If one choose to use the bitlocker approach rather than VeraCrypt as shown in the first part of this video ("How Should I Password-Protect an External Hard Drive?"), isn't the recommendations contradictory with the ones shown on other video ("How Should I Back Up an Encrypted Disk?")?

I use bitlocker in my "D:" internal HD and I back it up to an USB "E:" external HD from time to time, using FreeFileSync. The "E:" external driver is not set to bitlocker.

I would like to have bitlocker on both disks: the internal one and the external as well. I am not sure whether I understood Leo's recommendations. Any help?

[tubeniwes]

can this be used on chromebook? if not, any suggestions for one that works w/ chromebook?

[reefhound]

If I have a bootable USB with recovery tools, and I apply Bitlocker, will it still be bootable?

[sotecluxan]

I am using, e. g. Veracrypt. Seems to be a one-man-show. A backdoor-I do not know. Very little encryption software available, surprisingly? MS software is very probably backdoored, as their other crap, too. With V. u can encrypt ur pc completely-it works! Even on very old machines.

[HKLYTUNG]

I was using Bitlocker (Win 10 Pro) to encrpyt a 1 TB external drive when the process got freeze at 98.2%. I waited for hours then restart my computer. After I input my password to unlock the drive, my File Explorer and Manage Bitlocker in Control Panel freeze (not responding), the CMD can not run any command.

[siobhanmulvey]

I'm just watching your video now - and maybe this video isn't quite addressing my issue w data security. 

I have a question as I am buying a new external hard drive for my Mac. I didn't realize I wasn't using the Mac encryption feature my current external hard drive (which is almost full so I cannot set up encryption moving forward). With this new external hard drive I will set up encryption on my Mac for my time machine back ups right away! 

But I am also going to buy a secure external HDD - bc I have some files not on my laptop that I want to move to this external hdd and want to have them encrypted as well. I am going to do a tech clean up later this year so bring a secure external hdd is a stop gap measure to ensure no files with any sensitive personal data are left unencrypted on my new external hdd. Does this make sense or am I being too secure now? Is there such a thing?! Thank you!