How to Encrypt Your USB Flash Drive Using TrueCrypt
TrueCrypt is a free encryption program that allows you to disguise the contents of a file or entire storage device as random data. TrueCrypt only reveals the encrypted files when you provide your master password. File encryption is particularly useful for small storage devices such as USB flash drives, which are particularly prone to theft. After you encrypt your flash drive with TrueCrypt, the theft of a flash drive will not result in data loss because the thief will be unable to read the drive's contents.
- Difficulty:
- Moderately Easy
Instructions
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1
Download the TrueCrypt installation utility from truecrypt.org. Double-click the installation utility, and follow the prompts to install TrueCrypt on your computer.
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2
Insert the USB flash drive. Move its contents to a folder on your hard drive temporarily; TrueCrypt does not automatically encrypt existing files on the flash drive.
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3
Double-click the TrueCrypt icon on the desktop to launch the utility.
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4
Click the "Create Volume" button. A window titled "TrueCrypt Volume Creation Wizard" appears.
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5
Select the "Create an encrypted file container" radio button, and then click "Next."
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6
Select the "Standard TrueCrypt Volume" radio button, and then click "Next."
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7
Click the "Select File" button. Navigate to your USB flash drive. Type a file name such as "Encrypted Volume," and then click the "Save" button. Click "Next."
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8
Click the drop-down menu under "Encryption Algorithm," and select the algorithm that you would like to use to encrypt your files. TrueCrypt uses the AES algorithm by default. Click "Next."
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9
Type a number in the "Volume Size" field, and then click a radio button such as "GB" to indicate the amount of space on the flash drive that you would like to devote to the encrypted volume. Click "Next."
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10
Type and re-type the password that you would like to use when accessing the encrypted volume. Click "Next."
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11
Move the mouse pointer around the screen randomly for a few moments to generate an encryption hash, and then click the "Format" button to create the encrypted volume on the flash drive. This may take several minutes.
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12
Click "OK" and "Next" to return to the main TrueCrypt window when the encryption process is complete.
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13
Click the "Select File" button. Locate the encrypted volume that you created on your flash drive, and double-click it.
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14
Click a letter at the top of the TrueCrypt window to indicate the drive letter that you would like to assign to the encrypted volume, and then click the "Mount" button at the bottom of the window.
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15
Type your password for the encrypted volume and press "Enter."
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16
Open the Start menu, and click "Computer." Double-click the drive letter that you selected in Step 14. Use this drive letter when replacing the files that you removed from the flash drive. TrueCrypt encrypts the files automatically.
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1
Tips & Warnings
Hopefully, I made the steps to create an encrypted drive easy. Having an encrypted drive will give you the assurance that if you lost your flash drive, the personal information stored in the encrypted drive will never be exposed.
TrueCrypt and the TrueCrypt logo are registered trademarks of the TrueCrypt Foundation
These steps and other tips can also be found on my blog http://nyctechtips.com
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- Photo Credit Jeffrey Hamilton/Digital Vision/Getty Images
Comments
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Found a better tutorial a this Tutorial Forum.
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allovevic
Mar 28, 2009
i did all perfectly, but at last i got stuck in step-16.when i clicked ok after entering the password an error message popped up,"the system cannot find the file specified".what should i do now?/plz help.. -
nyctech
Feb 17, 2009
I don't remember seeing that when I wrote it, but I think I'll be revising the howto to use that instead. Seems easier.
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jimgreer
Feb 17, 2009
From the TrueCrypt users guide:"...by creating a special script file called autorun.inf ...Note that this feature only works for removable storage devices such as CD/DVD (Windows XP SP2 or Windows Vista is required for this feature to work on USB memory sticks) "I'm curious, why didn't you just use the "Traveler Disk Setup" command that TrueCrypt provides? Perhaps that was added after you wrote this.
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zetuga
Feb 10, 2009
Just encrypted my flash drive (with autorun.inf at al)but what transferred a file into it, the file wasn't encrypted! Is it because I'm running w2000 and when I plug in my flash drive I do not get the dialogue box asking me to "mount it"? Why can I action that in W2000? Thanks your help.
