The tool scrambles the contents of your drive and then unscrambles it when you enter your password – so if your computer gets stolen, your data will still be safe. The feature was first introduced in Windows Vista and has been included in all subsequent updates of Microsoft’s OS, although it’s only available in the Ultimate and Enterprise editions of Windows 7 the Pro and Enterprise editions of Windows 8+ and the Pro, Enterprise, and Education editions of Windows 10. These cost from £69 for an 8GB drive.īitLocker can protect your files and folders from unauthorised access by locking your drives. The same company also sells secure USB flash drives with a built-in keypad that work in the same way. The drive automatically locks itself after a period of inactivity and can “self-destruct” if someone tries to break in. You lock and unlock the drives by typing a PIN on the keypad on the front. The diskAshur Pro 2 range offers drives in 500GB, 1TB and 2TB capacities, and uses XTS-AES 256-bit hardware encryption. If you have a lot of personal files that you don’t want falling into the wrong hands, you can store them on a PIN-authenticated, tamper-proof USB drive.
