1. Plug in the drive to encrypt.
2. Open Windows Explorer.
3. Click This PC in the left-hand pane and view your drive under Devices and drives.
4. Right-click your drive and select Turn on BitLocker.
5. The next window, Choose how you want to unlock this drive appears automatically.
6. Select Use a password to unlock the drive and create a strong password that will be required by anyone who needs access to the drive.
Note: Be careful not to use your personal passwords!
7. Click Next.
8. When prompted How do you want to back up your recovery key? select Save to a file.
9. Choose where you want to save the file such as your home directory or department drive.
Note: You cannot save it to the drive that you are encrypting.
10. When the key has been saved, click Next, and Start encrypting.
11. A progress window will appear with the status of the encryption progress.
Note: Do not remove the drive while encryption is in progress, or it may damage the drive.
12. When finished, you will see message, Encryption of [drive] is complete.
![Encryption of [drive] is complete](https://itservicedesk.ufv.ca/TDPortal/Images/Viewer?fileName=65f158c8-3f61-4cf7-b4a2-7d5e8b38c12b.jpg&beidInt=5 "Click to View Full Image")
13. Click Close.
14. Check you drive for the lock and key icon to know your drive is encrypted.
