USB drives are a popular way to store data, and they’re also a great way to keep your important files safe. But if you don’t have any extra software installed on your computer, you may not be able to password protect your USB drives. Here’s how to do it without any extra software:

  1. Open the Windows Explorer window and browse for the drive you want to password protect.
  2. Click on the “Options” button in the top left corner of the Explorer window and then click on the “Password Protection” tab.
  3. In the “Password Type” field, select “password.”
  4. In the “Confirm Password” field, enter a strong password that you can remember easily. You can use anything that you know is easy to remember, like your name or a phrase from your favorite song.
  5. Click on the “Create Password” button and then click on OK to finish setting up your new password protection system.

Note: BitLocker requires Windows 8 Pro.

Turning On BitLocker for a Removable Drive

Open explorer and right click on your removable drive to open the context menu, then click on Turn on BitLocker.

When the wizard starts up you will need to check the “Use a password to unlock the drive” checkbox.

Then go ahead and type in a password and click next.

Now you will need to choose where you want to save the recovery key incase you forget the password for your drive. Usually you would only be able to either print it or save it to a file, however starting with Windows 8 you can also back it up to your Microsoft account, which I chose to do.

You then have to choose whether your drive is already in use or if it is new. Then click next.

Finally, you can click the Start encrypting button.

Unlocking the Drive

When you plug in the encrypted drive you will get a notification saying that it is BitLocker-protected.  Click on it.

You will then be asked for the password. Once you have typed it in, click on the Unlock button.

That’s all there is to it.