Do you want to keep the information on your hard drive safe? In the article below, we will teach you how to how to put a password to an external hard drive.
How to put a password on an external hard drive?
Currently, keeping your private information securely is a priority, especially if it is an external hard drive, since, if it were to be lost, everything you stored inside it would be completely vulnerable and you could end up being a victim of identity theft, blackmail, or someone illegally posting your information online.
To prevent these types of scenarios, you must know how to protect information, for that reason, below, we will explain how to do it:
How to protect the hard drive in Windows with BitLocker?
In this case, we will present you with an option, which is available for different versions of Windows, which is the tool called "BitLocker". One of the advantages of BitLocker is that it comes in different languages, it is free and, in addition, it does not weigh much, that is why it is one of the most recommended when setting a password in Windows.
This tool, the most normal thing would be that it was already installed in Windows, but if you don't have it, you have to download it, which is very simple, you just have to go to Google and type "BitLocker". One of the first pages that will appear will be that of "Microsoft", this is where you can read in better detail everything you need to know about BitLocker.
When you have clarified all the information you need, you will click on "Download" and it will immediately show you a window, where you will have to select whether you want: 86 bits or 64 bits, this will depend on the system you have. When you have chosen, click on "Download" and it will start in a few seconds; As soon as I finished, open the file to begin the installation.
When you finish installing this tool on your computer, go to your "This computer" folder. Remember that, to do this procedure, you must have your hard drive connected to the computer and then follow these steps to know how to improve and protect the conditions of the hard drive:
Step 1:
Once you are in the "This computer" folders, you will right click on the icon of your external hard drive and you will go to the "Activate BitLocker" option. Immediately, a window called "BitLocker Drive Encryption" will open and the tool will start to load, this will not take long, it may take less than 30 seconds.
When it finishes loading, the tool will ask you to choose how you want to unlock the unit, and then it will give you two options, from which you must choose the one that says: "Use a password to unlock the unit", and once you select it, You must write what password you want to put on your external hard drive. We recommend that it is not a very simple password but not very complicated either, the point is that you can easily remember it and that it is not very easy for other people to guess.
If you want to know how to make a good password to avoid crackers and other methods to protect your personal information, we invite you to read the following extremely interesting article on the following topic: What is a Cracker? .
Step 2:
When you decide which password you are going to use, you must repeat it at the bottom, this is to confirm that you have written them correctly and you do not have any errors. After doing so, you must click «Next» to continue.
Now it will ask you: How do you want to back up the recovery key? This is in case you forget the password and want to recover it. This choice is your own decision, you can click: "Save to Microsoft account", "Save to file" or "Print recovery key", any of the options is up to you.
The method you decide to use will be the one you feel most confident with, so the choice you make is the one that best suits you. We recommend that, if you print it, be careful not to lose it, because it is the only method you have to recover it.
Step 3:
When you decide which option to use, click "Next" and now you must "Choose how much of the drive you want to encrypt." Below, you will be presented with two options, of which you must choose the one that best suits your decision, make sure you read well before selecting and once you have made your choice, click "Next" again.
Step 4:
Next, you will have to decide that "Choice of encryption mode to be used". In this case, as we are working on an external hard drive, we will select the "Compatible Mode" option, which is the best option in case the unit needs to be moved out of the computer; after that, we will click «Next».
Step 5:
The tool will ask you if you are ready to encrypt this drive, so we will click "Start encryption". Remember that your files will not be completely protected, until it is finished loading, so you should wait for the process to finish.
When finished, you will see that the icon of your external hard drive has changed and now has a lock (or padlock) next to it, this means that it is now protected by a password. You can enter files into it and when you want to open it, it will ask you for the password you entered before.
If at any time, you want to make a change, you just have to right click on the icon of your hard drive and select the option "Manage BitLocker". Here you can change the password, recover password, remove password, among others.
Do you want to know how to use this application in Windows 1? In that case, we invite you to watch the following video to have more information that will allow you to expand your knowledge:
How to set external hard drive password in Windows with Lockdir?
There are other methods to put a password on an external hard drive and the one that we will present below, will work for any device. We will be using the light and portable application called "Lockdir", which we can Google and download easily.
It is not very new, in fact it is quite old, but that does not diminish how effective it can be in knowing how to put a password to an external hard drive. It can be very useful when protecting our personal information, in the same way, it is not limited only to hard drives, since it can be used in pendrives.
As soon as you have the application on your computer, you will copy and paste the Lockdir program into the external hard drive that you want to protect. Once inside, we will open it by double clicking on it; then we will follow the steps below to set the password on the hard drive:
Step 1:: When you open the program, the first thing that will appear is a small window called "Folder Locker". You will start by selecting the "Protect Default" option between the two that appear.
Step 2:: Now you must put a password, we recommend that you put numbers in the middle of the password to increase the difficulty and not be so simple to guess. You must write this password again below to confirm that the two match and after doing so, we will click on «Protect».
Step 3:: We have to wait a moment for the process to complete, don't be surprised if the folder you were in closes, that's normal. While you are waiting, the program will be encrypting the content within the hard drive you selected.
This process may take about a few seconds, but make sure not to turn off the computer or it will not finish properly. When finished, a sign will appear to which we will give "OK" and the window will close automatically.
To check, we can go to the "This computer" folder and when we open the external hard drive, it will be empty except for the "Lockdir" file, which will contain all the content you had on the hard drive. In order to access or view the files you had before, you must double-click on the Lockdir folder and select one of the three options that appear:
- Virtual Disk: This will be used to view the content on a virtual disk.
- Temporary: You can view the content in a temporary folder, in other words, you can see what was inside the hard drive and if you wish, you can lock it again.
- Complete: As the name implies, it is to see the content and fully unlock it. Keep in mind that, with this option, the content will return to the way it was before you could use the password, that is, you would be removing the password from the hard drive.
When you have decided how to continue, enter the password you entered earlier and click on "Unprotect". You will have to wait a few seconds for all the information to update and appear again.
In the event that you select the «Temporary» option, a small window will appear with three options, one of them is Restore Protection: with this option, you will be able to put the protection back on, when you finish what you wanted to do with the hard disk, By selecting this option, you will be able to block it again.
Remember that you are not free from accidentally losing or having a hard drive stolen, so it is necessary to know how to set a password to an external hard drive or pendrive, even if it is annoying to enter a password every time you want to use it, as it can be even more so when someone uses your data to commit crimes.
