Do you have some important files on your pen/flash drive which you want to protect from unauthorized access or you are worried about someone stealing important information from your pen/flash drive.
The majority of Microsoft Windows operating system donot comes with a method of password protecting your files and folders You have to purchase some software to do the same, but if you have windows 7, you can save your money. Windows 7 comes with encrypting software to protect your files stored on pendrive. The programe name BitLocker(very useful for locking USB drives with password and encripting it to keep it secure) can encrypt any pen drive with in 2-4 steps.With simple steps given below you can lock your pen/flash drive.
1. Insert your pen drive into your laptop and right click and choose Turn on BitLocker.
2. A new window will pop up
3. Select "Use a password to unlock the drive" from the options given.
4. Type password and click next.
Depending upon the data volume on your pen drive it will take some time to encrypt it.
BitLocker will also create and save recovery key in your laptop or pc, so that in case you forget your password, you can use the same file to recover it.
Once done, you need to plug-off and then reinsert the pen drive to see the encription action.
As this method of encription is absolute machine independent, you need not to worry about taking your pen drive to other computer, as it will prompt for decryption password.