■On the next window, from the right pane under the Devices and drives section, locate and right-click the icon of the external hard drive that you want to encrypt (assuming that there is a single partition for the entire hard drive). ■Open This PC by double-clicking its icon on the desktop. ■Ensure that you have connected the portable hard drive to your computer via USB cable. ■Log on to your Windows PC with any administrator account and go to the desktop window. Here is how you can use BitLocker to encrypt your portable hard drive: The versions developed for home users (such as Windows Vista/7/8 Home/Home Premium/Starter, etc.) do not have the BitLocker tool. Note: BitLocker is only available in some flavors of Windows Vista/7/8/8.1 operating systems that are meant to be used professionally. BitLocker is secure, and most importantly, does not require any additional investment. Encrypting the entire hard disk drive requires a completely different process.Įven though there are several third-party applications available that help you encrypt portable hard disk drives, if you are using Windows Vista or later, it is always recommended to use the built-in tool named BitLocker to get the job done. In Windows you can encrypt a single file or an entire folder containing multiple files with the help of the built-in encryption feature as long as drive is formatted for NTFS.

Encrypted portable hard drive