Secure Your External Hard Drive: Learn How to Password Protect a Folder

With the advent of technology, portable storage devices such as external hard drives, USB drives, SD cards, etc. can help us carry data anytime and anywhere. But these devices have their own disadvantages, such as being easily lost or even falling into the wrong hands, which means that all the confidential files and related folders inside are highly likely to be leaked.
Can we better protect confidential data on external hard drives and portable devices? There are many ways, but the best way is to encrypt and protect the folder where these data are located with a password set by yourself! This way, no one can access important files or data inside the device without authorization.

The following will teach you two methods of encrypting external hard drives, the fastest and most secure way to protect your private files.

BitLocker, a built-in tool that comes with Windows, can quickly encrypt external hard drives. The encryption method is as follows:

step 1: Plug the external hard drive into the computerUSBAfter the interface, open “This PC”, select the hard disk to be encrypted, right-click and select “Turn on Bitlocker”.

Step 2: After the initial optimization of BitLocker is completed, in the BitLocker drive encryption interface, select the way to unlock the drive, and check “Use a password to unlock the drive”. After entering the unlock password, click “Next”.

Step 3: Then select the location of the backup recovery key, choose according to your needs, and click “Next”. Here select “Save to a file”.

Step 4: Finally, select the size of the encrypted drive space, and you can encrypt “Encrypt used disk space only” or “Encrypt entire Drive”. After checking, click “Next” to complete the encryption operation of the external hard disk.

In addition to using the Windows built-in BitLocker tool to encrypt external hard drives, Renee File Protector software can also implement secure encryption. What is the difference between BitLocker and Renee File Protector? Or who is better? Through the form below, you can clearly know!

The encryption method of BitLocker is too simple, and the encryption method and functions of Renee File Protector are more complete, which can protect your important files more securely. So it is recommended that you use Renee File Protector software to encrypt external hard drives and files.

In Windows, we can use the built-in encryption function to password protect the folders saved in the computer. But how to password protect an external disk at will without affecting free space and normal use of less important files? You can try a professional data protection software – Renee File Protector. Helps you password protect folders with important files from external hard drive or USB with some simple steps but with professional encryption.

Steps to use Renee File Protector software to encrypt external hard disk folders:

The first time you use Renee File Protector, you will need to set a master password. Here, we recommend you to set up an email address as it can help you recover your password if you forget it.

Step 1: Launch Renee File Protector and go to “External disk” and “Lock file“. Then connect the external hard disk/external storage device to the computer.

Step 2: Click on the “Lock folder” and select the destination folder on the external hard drive.

After selecting a folder, a password needs to be set. Renee File Protector provides 2 password modes: master password and independent password set when using the software for the first time. *The new version now offers “guest password“, users can be authorized to inspect files but not unlock them.

Step 3: Check and edit the files in the password-protected folder.
Once locked, it will create a new file called “(original name of the folder).exe”. Then the original folder will be deleted automatically.

If you want to access a password-protected folder and edit files within it, click on this .exe file and enter the relevant password in the pop-up window.

Step 4: After entering the correct password, a floating window of the password-protected folder will be displayed on the upper right corner of the desktop.
You can click “View”, “Change Password” and “Unlock” to do what you want.

The previous part has detailed the encryption method steps, this part will explain how to unlock the folder!

1. Unlock in another computer (without Renee File Protector software)

① Once locked, it will create a new file named “(original name of the folder).exe”. Then the original folder will be deleted automatically. If you want to permanently unlock the folder, please double-click this .exe file, and then enter the password you set before in the pop-up window.

② After unlocking, please click “Unlock” in the floating window and confirm the operation.

2. Unlock with Renee File Protector software