Protect your flash drive with BitLocker

BitLocker helps protect the data on your drive by encrypting it. Following the instructions below allow you to turn BitLocker on a thumb drive. Note Bitlocker is only available in Windows 7 Ultimate.

1. Plug your flash drive into a USB port.
2. Click Start.
3. Click Computer.
4. Right-click the drive assigned to the flash drive.
5. Click Turn on BitLocker.
6. A screen pops up that says BitLocker Drive Encryption (Drive name).
7. Under Choose how you want to unlock this drive, click Use a password to unlock the drive or Use my smart card to unlock the drive.

8. Click Next.
9. Under How do you want to store your recovery key?, choose Save the recovery key to a file or Print the recovery key. For this example, we are going to save the file.
10. Choose the location you want the key to be saved. Click Save.
11. On the previous screen labeled BitLocker Drive Encryption, it now says your key is saved.
12. Click Next.
13. The next screen asks Are you ready to encrypt this drive?
14. Click Start Encrypting.
15. The encryption process takes a while depending on the size of your drive.

If you decide later that you don't want BitLocker to protect the flash drive, you can turn it off at any time using the following steps.

1. Click Start.
2. Click Control Panel.
3. Click System and Security.
4. Click BitLocker Drive Encryption.
5. Find your flash drive in the list.
6. Click Turn off BitLocker.
7. A screen pops up that asks to decrypt your drive. Click Yes.
8. This process takes approximately as long as it took to encrypt it in the steps above.