BitLocker-To-Go is BitLocker Drive Encryption for removable data drives, such as USB flash drives, SD cards, and external hard disk drives.
Encrypt drives with Bitlocker-To-Go
1. Plug in the drive that you want to encrypt.
2. Open Windows Explorer.
3. Click This PC in the left-hand pane. You should see your drive under Devices and drives.
4. Right-click the drive and select Turn on Bitlocker.
5. The next window, ‘Choose how you want to unlock this drive’, will appear automatically. Select ‘Use a password to unlock the drive’ and create a strong password.
Anyone who needs access to the drive will need the password that you choose – so be careful not to use your personal passwords!
6. Click Next. When prompted ‘How do you want to back up your recovery key?’, select ‘Save to a file’.
Choose where you want to save the file, e.g, your home directory or department drive. You cannot save it to the drive that you are encrypting.
When the key has been saved, click Next, and then Start encrypting.
8. A progress window will appear with the status of the encryption progress. Do not remove the drive while encryption is in progress, or it may damage the drive.
When finished, you will see this status message: Encryption of [drive] is complete.
Click Close.
You will know that your drive is encrypted from the drive icon. It will now have a lock and key.
BitLocker to Go - Changing the Password of Encrypted Drive
1. To change the password of an encrypted drive, right-click the drive and choose ‘Change Bitlocker password’.
2. Enter the old and new password, and confirm the new password. Select Change password to save the change.
