Bad actors are everywhere, and they take every chance to eavesdrop on your personal life and learn everything about you. They enjoy spreading rumours about you and damaging your social status. Moreover, they will spare no chance to steal money from you if any financial data is available on the external hard drive.
Thus, protecting your external hard drive is highly important to protect your personal data from unauthorized access and misuse. The following are some methods that can help you to password-protect your external hard drive and prevent bad actors from accessing it without your permission. So let’s get started!
How Windows Users Can Password-Protect External Devices?
Windows computers offer a built-in tool to protect your external hard drive that is called BitLocker. With this smart tool, you can secure your external hard drives by adding a strong password to them. Here is a step-by-step process on how you can use it:
1. Plug in Your External Drive
Pop your external hard drive or USB into your computer. Wait a few seconds until Windows detects it.
2. Right-click the Drive
Open File Explorer, find your external drive under “This PC,” then right-click it. Choose “Turn on BitLocker.”
3. Add Your Password
When the setup window appears, check the box that says “Use a password to unlock the drive.” Type your password twice, make it strong, but use something that you can remember. Make sure you create a robust password to protect your drive. To do so, you must:
- Use a mix of letters, numbers, and symbols in your password.
- Don’t store your password and recovery key on the same computer.
- Remove your drive safely to avoid data damage.
4. Save Your Recovery Key
Windows will ask where to save a recovery key. This key helps you unlock your drive if you ever forget your password. You can:
- Save it to your Microsoft account.
- Save it as a file on your PC or take a printout.
5. Choose What to Encrypt
You’ll get two options:
- Encrypt used disk space only (faster, good for new drives)
- Encrypt entire drive (slower, but more secure)
6. Start Encryption
- Click “Start Encrypting.” Wait for it. It can take some time if your drive size is big.
- Once the process is done, you can plug your drive into your Windows PC and access the information using the password.
How can a macOS user Password-protect an External Hard Drive?
Similar to Windows systems, macOS also provides a built-in tool that allows you to protect your external hard drive by making it password-protected. Here is how you can use this tool to make your drive protected:
1. Plug in your external hard drive
Connect your drive to your Mac. Wait a moment for it to appear on your desktop or in the Finder sidebar.
2. Right-click (or Control + Click) the drive
From the options that pop up, choose “Encrypt [Drive Name]…”
3. Set your password
Write a strong password and a complex password to protect your drive. Make sure it is not easily guessable but easy to remember. To create a strong password, you must:
- Use uppercase, lowercase, numbers, and special characters.
- Make it eight to sixteen letters long.
4. Let macOS Complete the Process
- Click to “Encrypt,” and wait. Your device could take some time to complete locking the drive.
- Once done, your drive will now show a lock icon, meaning it’s password-protected.
5. Unlocking Your Drive
Now, when you connect the drive to your macOS, it will ask you for a password. You can access the data inside it by using the password you have created.
How to Password-protect External Hard Drives Using Third-Party Tools?
You can also use third-party tools to encrypt and lock your external hard drives to make them password-protected. Here are some popular and safe tools that you can go for:
1. VeraCrypt (Free & Open Source)
VeraCrypt is one of the most popular encryption tools out there, and best of all, it’s completely free. Think of it as putting your files in a locked digital safe that only opens with your password.
Here’s how to use it:
- Download and install VeraCrypt from its official website.
- Plug in your external hard drive.
- Open VeraCrypt and click “Create Volume.”
- Choose “Encrypt a non-system partition/drive.”
- Follow the setup steps to create a strong password.
- Select your encryption method (the default AES works great).
- Once done, your drive will now be fully password-protected!
- To access your files later, just open VeraCrypt, mount the drive, enter your password, and you’re in.
Tip: Keep your password safe somewhere offline. If you lose it, there’s no “Forgot Password” option here!
2. AxCrypt (Simple & User-Friendly)
AxCrypt is a great choice if you just want something quick and lightweight. It’s perfect for encrypting individual files or folders instead of the whole drive.
How it works:
- Install AxCrypt on your computer.
- Right-click any file or folder on your external drive.
- Choose “AxCrypt → Encrypt.”
- Set your password, and that’s it!
- Your file will turn into a locked version that only opens with your password.
3. Folder Lock (For Windows Users)
Folder Lock is another handy option that can secure not just drives, but also files, folders, and even USBs. It has extra features like stealth mode and auto-lock timers.
Steps:
- Install Folder Lock from its official website.
- Open the program and create a Master Password.
- Add your external drive to the protected list.
- Lock or encrypt it with one click.
