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Using a USB drive with University of Essex computers

Using a USB drive with University of Essex computers

All University of Essex issued computers will now prompt you to encrypt a USB drive with Bitlocker if you wish to write data to it. This is an essential policy to increase the security of our data that stored on any USB devices, as if the device is lost, the data is encrypted and cannot be accessed by anyone without the correct password to unlock the drive. Without encrypting a USB drive with BitLocker, you can still read files on the device, but you will not be able to write anything new to it.

How to encrypt your USB drive with BitLocker

IMPORTANT: Make sure you have backed up your files before attempting the steps below.

  1. Insert USB drive into the computer.

  2. Windows will prompt you about BitLocker drive encryption:

  1. If you don’t wish to encrypt the drive, you can click “Don’t encrypt this drive”.

If you do not encrypt the drive it will allow you to read files on the USB drive only, you will not be able to save any files to it with a University issued computer.

  1. If you want to encrypt the drive, click “Encrypt this drive using BitLocker Drive Encryption”

  2. The wizard will pop up to guide you through the process of encrypting the drive.

  1. Choose “Use a password to unlock the drive” and choose a password for it. Click Next when you are done.

  1. The wizard will now show that you need to back up your recovery key.

THIS STEP IS ESSENTIAL – if you forget your password, the ONLY way to get back into the drive is to use this recovery key, so make sure it is saved somewhere safe. DITS cannot assist you with this key as it is personal to you and we have no access to recover it or your password if it is lost.

We suggest saving it to your personal Box folder or to your OneDrive Documents folder. The option to proceed next will be greyed out until you have saved the file or printed it (DITS does not recommend printing the key).

  1. The wizard will ask you to choose how much of the drive to encrypt. We would recommend that you choose “Encrypt entire drive (slower but best for PCs and drives already in use) as this will ensure that all of your files are protected by the encryption.

  1. The next step will begin the encryption. Do not click “Start Encrypting” until you are confident that you know the password, and that the recovery key file you created earlier is stored somewhere safe. Once you click “Start encrypting”, Windows will commit the changes to your USB drive.

  1. Once the encryption is complete, the progress window will close unceremoniously, and your drive will appear in File Explorer as normal.

Unlocking your BitLocker encrypted USB drive

  1. Plug the USB drive into your computer. A notification will appear to unlock the drive.

  1. Click the notification. A window to enter the password will appear. If you miss the notification, you can click the drive in File Explorer to bring up the password prompt.

  1. Enter the password you created when you set up BitLocker. The prompt will close and your drive will be unlocked.

Removing BitLocker encryption from your USB Drive

 

  1. First, insert your USB drive into your computer and unlock it.

  2. Open the start menu and search for “BitLocker”.

  3. Click “Manage BitLocker”

  1. Scroll down to the “Removable data drives – BitLocker To Go” section and press the down arrow if nothing is showing.

  1. Click the “Turn off BitLocker” option. A pop up will appear asking you to confirm. Click “Turn off BitLocker”

  1. A window will appear showing the status of the decryption:

  1. When complete, you’ll be given a confirmation:

  1. Click close, your decryption is complete.