When the hard drive will be fully encrypted, you could see the confirmation message as shown below. Once encryption is started you could see the encryption status as shown below in the image. Unless you require your external drive to be compatible with older Windows machines, select “ New Encryption Mode“, else select “ Compatible Mode“.

You could also choose to encrypt used disk space only. Follow the steps shown below in the image.Ĭhoose Encrypt Entire Drive. This option also encrypts files that have been marked for deletion. You can save it on your hard drive, to a USB drive, on the cloud or print it. You will need this code to access your drive if you lose your password. Select the mode of Recovery Key you want to save from the given options. Follow the steps as shown below in the image. Refer to the image below.Īs soon as you will turn on BitLocker you will see the starting BitLocker notification as shown below in the image.Įnter a secure password and save it in a safe place. Right-click the target drive and select “ Turn on BitLocker“. Step 1: Open the Windows Explorer and right-click on your external hard drive.

Open “ File Explorer” and locate your external drive which will be encrypted. Go through the following steps to encrypt an external hard drive in Windows using BitLocker.

Encrypt external drive