JANUARY 2022 PCWorld 105One of the last steps is deciding how
much of the drive to encrypt ( 2 ): all of it, or
just the used space. We chose just the used
space simply because it should result in
faster drive performance.
You’ll also have to choose which encryption
mode you want: one that works
with newer PCs, or one that’s
compatible with older versions of
Windows. Since we only have
Windows 10 and 11 PCs in our
house, we chose the newer version.
Once you’ve made those
choices, you can go ahead and
click Start Encrypting. On our
256GB test drive, the encryption
process took just a few seconds.
When it’s complete, your data is
encrypted. Going forward,
inserting the now encrypted
drive results in the error seen below, instead
of just automatically opening as it does for
external storage.
You’ll also get a pop-up from Windows
asking you to type the encryption password
or recovery key ( 3 ). Thankfully, Windows gives
you the option of automatically unlocking on
a certain PC, which is handy if you’re using it a
lot on a home PC as opposed to a laptop.IF YOU’RE USING WINDOWS
HOME OR YOU JUST WANT
AN ENCRYPTED FOLDER
If you have the Home version of Windows,
you can still get in on the encryption game
with Veracrypt (fave.co/3pf4e9S), which is a
free utility that can encrypt a folder, drive, or
partition. This handy tool lets you mount an
encrypted virtual disk in Windows, MacOS,
and Linux. When you enter your password,2.3.