Using Windows 7 to protect USB hard drive data with its own features

The tendency of moving hard disks to be smaller and more bulky makes more and more sensitive data stored on them, so how to better protect the security of these data becomes a very urgent problem.

When Windows Vista was first launched, Microsoft said a very large security feature added to the operating system was BitLocker, a hard drive encryption designed to protect sensitive data from unauthorized access.

Microsoft's latest operating system, Windows 7, also has a feature called BitLocker to go that protects sensitive data on a USB hard drive, which is described in detail in this article.

How BitLocker to go works

In simple terms, BitLocker to go allows you to encrypt a USB hard drive, and when you connect a USB hard drive to a Windows 7 computer, you will be prompted to enter the password and you will be able to access the message only after you have entered the password correctly.

During encryption, Windows 7 installs a dedicated reader on a USB hard drive. When you connect a USB hard drive to a computer running XP or Vista, the BitLocker to go reader is responsible for prompting for a password and then setting the USB hard drive as a read-only device.

For enterprise users, if a domain control system is used, IT administrators can configure policies to require users to apply BitLocker protection before writing data to a mobile hard disk. In addition, the policy can also set the complexity of the password requirements.

Use BitLocker to go encrypted hard drive

Setting BitLocker to go on a USB hard drive is very simple, after you insert a USB hard drive, right click on the letter from the menu to open the BitLocker command, as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1, turn on BitLocker feature

After clicking on the command, BitLocker to go will begin initializing your USB hard drive, as shown in Figure 2. This process does not break the existing data on the hard drive, so you need not worry.

Figure 2, BitLocker to go initialize USB hard drive