Using Windows 7's own features to protect USB hard drive data

The trend of smaller and larger capacity of mobile hard disks has made more and more sensitive data stored on them. Therefore, how to better protect the security of these data becomes a very urgent problem.

When Windows Vista was first introduced, Microsoft said that a very large security feature added to the operating system is BitLocker, which is designed to protect sensitive data from unauthorized access.

There is also a feature called BitLocker To Go in Microsoft's latest operating system, Windows 7, to protect sensitive data on USB hard drives, which is described in detail in this article.

How BitLocker To Go Works

In a nutshell, BitLocker To Go allows you to encrypt a USB hard drive when you connect a USB hard drive to a Windows 7 computer. You will be prompted to enter your password, and you will only be able to access the information on it if you enter it correctly.

During the encryption process, Windows 7 installed a dedicated reader on the USB hard drive. When you connect a USB hard drive to a computer running XP or Vista, the BitLocker To Go reader will be responsible for prompting for a password and then setting the USB drive to 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 the removable hard drive. In addition, the strategy can also set password complexity requirements.

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Encrypting Hard Disks with BitLocker To Go

Setting up BitLocker To Go on a USB hard disk is very simple, after you insert a USB hard disk, the drive letter Right click and select Open BitLocker command from the menu, as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1. Turning on the BitLocker function

After clicking the above command, BitLocker To Go will start to initialize your USB hard disk, as shown in Figure 2. This process does not destroy the existing data on the hard drive, so you don't have to worry.

Figure 2. BitLocker To Go initializes the USB hard disk.

Once the initialization process is complete, BitLocker To Go will prompt you to set a password to unlock the hard disk. 3 is shown. If you have a smart card, you can also use its PIN to unlock the drive.

Figure 3. A password or smart card can be used to unlock BitLocker To Go protected devices.

After setting a password or using a smart card, the BitLocker To Go function will prompt You store style="COLOR: #000000" href="http://storage.it168.com/" target=_blank> to store a recovery key, as shown in Figure 4. With it, you can unlock your hard drive when you forget your password or lose your smart card.

Figure 4. Creating a Recovery Key

When you create a password and save the recovery key, you will be prompted to start the encryption process, as shown in Figure 5. .

Figure 5. Tips to start the encryption process

During the encryption process, you will see a standard encryption progress monitor, as shown in Figure 6. The time taken for this process varies depending on the size of the hard disk. You can temporarily interrupt the encryption process by using the pause button below.

Figure 6. Encryption Progress Display

Of course, once the encryption is complete, BitLocker To Go will display a confirmation dialog and modify the display icon of the USB mobile hard disk, such as Figure 7 shows.

Figure 7, Mobile Hard Disk Icon Changes

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Using Encrypted Hard Disks in Windows 7

When you insert a hard disk encrypted with BitLocker To Go in Windows 7, the system will prompt you to enter the password, as shown in Figure 8. You can choose whether the characters you type are displayed with an asterisk and you can choose to automatically unlock the drive on the current computer.

Figure 8. Prompt for password

After entering the password, click the unlock button and you will see the auto play window, as shown in Figure 9. After clicking the Open Folder View File button, you will be able to access the contents of the drive.

Figure 9. AutoPlay Box

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Using Encrypted Hard Disk under Windows XP/Vista

After inserting an encrypted hard drive under Windows XP or Vista, you will see an autoplay box prompting you to install the BitLocker To Go reader, as shown in Figure 10. When you click this button, the reader is automatically installed and running.

Figure 10. Prompt to install BitLocker To Go Reader

Then the BitLocker To Go Reader dialog will prompt you for a password, as shown in Figure 11. It's worth noting that there is no automatic unlock option here.

Figure 11. Prompt for password

After entering the password, you will see the BitLocker To Go reader window, as shown in Figure 12.

Figure 12, BitLocker To Go Reader Window

When you double-click on a file, it will prompt you to copy the file to the desktop, as shown in Figure 13. That is, you can't open the file directly on the USB hard drive.

Figure 13, can not open the file directly

If you try to copy a file into the BitLocker To Go reader window, you will receive an error message, such as Figure 14 shows.

Figure 14, error message