Windows Seven 7: Use Bit Locker to Go to Encrypt Your Portable Media [How To]

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Bit Locker encrypts your drives so others cannot access them without a password. With an increasing number of key drives at our disposal, loss of sensitive data is becoming more of a threat. In this guide, you’ll learn how to encrypt your thumb drive with BitLocker to go, which comes with Windows 7.

Note: These guides are written for the Windows Seven Ultimate RC1 (build 7100.) As further builds are released, these guides may be subject to change and will be updated accordingly. If the methods described below do not work, please don’t hesitate to ask our experts in the forums.

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Encrypting Your Thumb Drive with BitLocker to go

To encrypt your thumb drive, do the following:

1. Plug your thumb drive into a USB port
2. Click the Start button, type BitLocker, and click on BitLocker Drive Encryption
3. Next to your thumb drive, click Turn on BitLocker
   
4. If your thumb drive is compatible, BitLocker will prepare it
   
5. Choose a password and click continue
   
6. Either save your recovery key (used if you forget your password) or print a copy of it out
   
7. If you save the file, ensure it’s stored somewhere safe
   
8. Click Next
   
9. Confirm your chosen settings and password and click Start Encrypting
   
10. Your drive will now be encrypted
    
11. If you have a large thumb drive, this may take a long time
    

Verifying Your Thumb Drive is Encrypted Properly

When protecting your data or anything you own, it is important to ensure the protection actually works. I took my thumb drive out of the Windows Seven machine and put it in a Vista machine. You should do the following too, to ensure your data is protected.

To verify your data is protected, do the following:

1. Put your thumb drive in another PC and try to open the files. You should see a BitLocker setup file, which shows BitLocker is not installed on the computer you’re testing on. If you have BitLocker installed on the machine, you will be prompted for a password (see the next step.)
   
2. If you have BitLocker installed on the PC you are testing on, you will be prompted for your password
   
3. Enter your password to get to your data

Removing BitLocker Encryption

If you would like to decrypt your drive, do the following:

1. Plug your thumb drive into a USB port
2. Click the Start button, type BitLocker, and click on BitLocker Drive Encryption
3. Next to your thumb drive, click Turn Off BitLocker, and click Decrypt
   
4. This will take some time
5. Your drive is no longer encrypted

Now you are familiar with Windows 7’s built-in feature, which helps you protect your data.