How To Encrypt An External Drive Using Veracrypt With Pictures

Any external drive will work. Do not unplug your external drive during the process of encryption.

The instructions in this article were written using Windows 11.

This step will use a different application to save your new VeraCrypt volume when running on a different operating system than Windows 11.

AES encryption algorithm is an industry standard and is acceptable to be left as the default (Simplilearn, 2022). SHA-256 is recommended as it is a commonly used and widely compatible hash algorithm (Sectigo, 2021).

Ensure that your volume is at least the minimum size allowed for the format used on your external drive.

exFAT is best for external drives due to its excellent compatibility. Its maximum file size is 16EB (Norem, 2016). NTFS is Windows’ filesystem. Use this if you will primarily be using your external drive on Windows devices (Norem, 2016). FAT32 is an older version of exFAT. It doesn’t allow file sizes over 4GB. It is best used for compatibility (Norem, 2016).

The instructions in this article are written using Windows 11.

Select the partition under the listed disk, not the disk itself.

If you select “Create encrypted volume and format it,” your entire external drive will be wiped. This is the fastest way to encrypt your drive. If you select “Encrypt partition in place,” your data will remain on the drive. This option will be slower than formatting the drive.