Open up VeraCrypt again, select an unused drive letter and click on “ Select File” to locate your protected virtual disk image, and click on Mount.Your volume is actually a disk image file which you can view from File Explorer.Once the volume has been successfully created, click on Exit.In order to generate strong encryption keys, simply move your mouse randomly until the blue bar reaches the end. It is recommended to choose NTFS so you will be able to use files bigger than 4GB. Select what file system you want to use.Enter a volume password which will be later used for mounting this virtual disk image.It must be large enough to hold your sensitive files. The default settings of AES and SHA-512 are good enough for most purposes. This image can be stored on a local drive or an external USB drive. Next, use the “ Select File” button to pick a name and location for the virtual disk image you wish to create.Here we select “ Standard VeraCrypt volume“. VeraCrypt supports two different types of encrypted volumes.Choose “ Create an encrypted file container” and click on Next.To start, we need to create a protected virtual disk image (aka “encrypted file container”). When you open up VeraCrypt, you’ll see a listing of unused drive letters.Part 2: Create a Protected Virtual Disk Image The installation is as easy as clicking Next a bunch of times.

Just download VeraCrypt (about 34.5Mb) from its official website. VeraCrypt is a free open source software for real-time disk encryption, which is available for Windows, Mac OSX and Linux. In this tutorial we’ll walk you through the steps of encrypting files on your hard disk or USB drive in Windows 10 using VeraCrypt. What is the best way to protect sensitive data from being stolen? Can’t enable BitLocker without TPM? VeraCrypt is a good alternative to BitLocker, which lets you create a virtual disk image for securing your sensitive files with password.

Password protected external hard drive