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How to encrypt external hard drives using USB in Windows 7 Pro and Home?

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xtabber:
TrueCrypt was the solution of choice for nearly everyone until its mysterious demise.

VeraCrypt is based on the TrueCrypt code and seems to be the preferred replacement among many former TrueCrypt users.  It seems to be actively developed and updated at this time.
 
Unusually for open source software, it has excellent documentation, including a tutorial for beginners.

f0dder:
EFS is best left to domain networks due to the level of complexity that is recovery key handling. So a third party solution is probably best for this.-Stoic Joker (April 04, 2016, 06:48 AM)
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This!

EFS is super easy to use, but it's also super easy to forget about key management, and then you suddenly have no way of accessing your files after a Windows reinstall.

I'll add a +1 for VeraCrypt. There's several ways to use it, the simplest being a container file on a FAT or NTFS partition. For my cold-storage drives, I use an alternative method, though: first I use fdisk (or some other partitioning tool) to create a partition spanning the entire external drive, then set its type to "Linux". This has the advantage of not wasting space for a filesystem that only contains a container file, and setting the partition type to "Linux" makes Windows not complain about unrecognized filesystem and offer to format it for you...

Another advantage of VeraCrypt is that it's cross-platform so your data isn't locked to Windows. Oh, and then there's the whole open-source and peer-reviewed aspect, which is also kinda nice.

Yes, you still need to remember passphrases, and there's a bit of hassle in mounting your containers - but you don't get any kind of sensible security entirely transparent.

4wd:
Bitlocker was/is only available on Pro or higher versions of Windows 7 or later.-4wd (April 03, 2016, 08:00 PM)
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Unfortunately - since Bitlocker To Go would be great for this - Bitlocker isn't available in Win7 pro, as it's only available in the Enterprise and Ultimate editions.-Stoic Joker (April 04, 2016, 06:48 AM)
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Ah OK, must of only appeared in Pro versions since Windows 8.

dr_andus:
Thank you all, I'll investigate VeraCrypt then.

Dormouse:
Bitlocker was/is only available on Pro or higher versions of Windows 7 or later.-4wd (April 03, 2016, 08:00 PM)
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Bitlocker isn't available in Win7 pro, as it's only available in the Enterprise and Ultimate editions.-Stoic Joker (April 04, 2016, 06:48 AM)
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Oops :-[. Sorry. I forgot I'd set it up originally on a W8 machine.

I must say that the unanimity of support for Veracrypt will take me in that direction. I much prefer multi-platform. I've still been using TrueCrypt.

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