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

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

When the initial launch of Windows Vista, 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. This article will introduce them in detail.

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.

In the process of encryption, Windows 7 installed a special reader on the USB hard disk. 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.

Using BitLocker To Go to Encrypt Hard Disks

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

Figure 1, open 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 completed, BitLocker To Go will prompt you to set a password to unlock the hard disk, as shown in the figure. 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 a 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, create recovery key

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

Figure 5, prompt to start the encryption process

In 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 completed, BitLocker To Go will display a confirmation dialog box, and modify the display icon of the USB mobile hard disk, such as Figure 7 shows.

Figure 7, mobile hard disk icon changes

Use encrypted hard disk in Windows 7

When you insert one in Windows 7 system When you use a BitLocker To Go encrypted hard drive, you will be prompted to enter your password immediately, 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, Auto Play Box

Use encrypted hard disk under Windows XP/Vista

Insert encrypted under Windows XP or Vista After the hard drive, you will see an auto play 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.