That way, even if you forget the password, you’ll be able to regain access. (When given the opportunity to save a recovery key, do so. Windows will encrypt the drive for you, and require the password you set to access that drive’s contents in the future. Included in Windows 7 and later, in all editions except “Home,” “Starter” or Windows 7’s “Pro”, BitLocker is a whole-drive encryption technology that can be used on external or internal drives. What you want instead is that the data you care about - everything on the drive, in your example - be encrypted, so regardless of how it might be accessed, the data is inaccessible without your password.

Either way, they can bypass the password and access your files. Or perhaps they perform some kind of forensic data recovery on the drive. Now someone steals your computer, or gains access to that computer using some other operating system or technology that simply ignores the password requirement. The reason you’re looking for encryption is that a password by itself isn’t enough.įor example, let’s say you somehow attach a password to a drive 1. What you’re really looking for is encryption. BitLocker is one solution, and it’s much more than “just” password protecting the drive.

External hard disk password protection