How to Encrypt/Password Protect USB Flash Drives (Pendrives)

Here is a small tutorial on How to Encrypt/ Password protect your Pendrives / USB Flash Drives.

Most of us today have a Pendrive / USB Flash drive. We carry the important data on the USB flash drive. But have you ever thought how secure is that data we stored on our USB Flash drive/ pendrive ? We might have stored important data on the USB  flash drive/ pendrive that we don't want others to see. The Perfect solution to this is to password protect the pendrive or USB flash drive. A small and sleek freeware utility will help you to password protect your USB  flash drive or pendrive and make it secure.

TrueCrypt is an excellent utility that can password protect the USB flash drive / pendrives, your hard disk’s and other devices too. If you only need a small portion in your USB  flash drive / pendrive that needs to be encrypted, you can do that too with ease using TrueCrypt.

Here are the steps to Encrypt/ Password Protect your Flash Drives / Pendrives

• First Download the TrueCrypt utility from here.



• Install the TrueCrypt utility to the pendrive / flash drive. Better to install TrueCrypt on its own default folder in the pendrive / USB flash drive.



• Click the “Create Volume” button from its window. TrueCrypt will now TrueCrypt Volume Creation Wizard Window.



• Leave the First Option “  Create an encrypted file container  “selected and click on Next.



• Here also leave the first option “ Standard TrueCrypt Volume “ selected and proceed to Next.



• In the next window press “ Select File “ and go to your pendrive’s / flash drive’s location. Enter a file name and click save. This file now created by TrueCrypt on your USB Flash Drive / Pendrive will be the store house of the files that we encrypt later. Click on Next.



• Under Encryption Algorithm leave it as AES on and select  Whirlpool from Hash Algorithm and click Next.



• Now, Enter the space you need for keeping the encrypted files and click on next and enter a good password ad click on next.



• Click on “Format”.



• Now open TrueCrypt to select the are where the encrypted data needs to be mounted. Choose the “ Select Files ” option and now pick the encrypted file area in your USB Flash Drive / Pendrive and click Open .



• Choose an unused drive letter and press “Mount”. You will be now asked for the Password. Enter the correct Password and windows will mount you encrypted data in your USB Flash Drive / Pendrive  to the selected drive letter.



• You must click on “ Dismount” before taking / plugging out the USB Flash Drive / Pendrive  from your system.

That's it ! You can now be confident about your data in your USB Flash Drive / Pendrive .