Looking to encrypt your USB drive? Here are the best programs you can use.

USB flash drives are extremely popular due to their size and affordability. As these drives are portable, lightweight, and have substantial storage volumes, they come handy for transporting data.

But with data comes security—especially a tiny USB drive, which can be easily lost or stolen. To protect your data inside a USB drive, you need USB drive encryption software. Here, we'll see how to encrypt a USB drive in Windows.

Encryption is a way of manipulating text to become unreadable when encrypted. For example, after encryption, the encrypted phrase "let's meet at Starbucks" may appear as "SBdas3q323bhdbash44234". So, if you lose your encrypted USB and someone tries to look into your USB device history, they might not be able to access the data.

There are several ways to achieve encryption, and various algorithms make it possible. There is software that can use these algorithms to encrypt your USB drive. When you encrypt your USB drive, reading the data will require a secret key, and it gives you a complete advantage on the security of your data inside your USB drive.

But how does this help you, you ask? Well, if you lose your USB drive or someone steals it, you won't have to worry about the data because it will be in an encrypted format. The person with your USB must provide a secret key to decrypt and read the data. They could still format your protected USB, but at least they won't have access to your information.

The AxCrypt encryption software has a decent user interface for individuals who are not used to these types of programs. It uses AES-256 encryption and is available for download for both macOS and Windows.

We'd like to quickly point out that this is only one of the two encryption programs in this list that supports macOS. There is a business and personal version, and the main difference is that the business version provides better customer support and a master key. The software also allows automatic encryption and caching of passphrases.

Download: AxCrypt for Windows I Mac (Starts from $3.75/month, free trial available)

DriveCrypt is the best option for encrypting sensitive files on your USB drive. This tool is considered one of the best encryption security providers in the market (and this list) as it allows you to encrypt with high security of 1344 bits.

DriveCrypt also allows for selective file encryption and for you to hide files completely. Finally, it is one of the few software that enables fingerprint scanning for authentication. Its only downside is that it is a bit costly compared to the rest of the options in the market and that it only supports Windows devices.

Download: DriveCrypt for Windows ($43, free trial available)

Rohos is extremely simple to use since it will automate the most tedious and time-consuming parts of encryption and allows you to encrypt more than just your USB. There are two main products from Rohos: Rohos Disk Encryption, for encrypting your USB drive, hard drive, or even cloud host, and Rohos Logon Key, which can make your USB flash drive or smartphone a security key for Rohos Disk Encryption.

Its main feature is that it uses the AES 256 algorithm, it allows you to create encrypted volumes, and it also allows you to mount data on other volumes. Rohos Disk Encryption is available only for Windows OS, but Rohos Logon Key is available for Mac and Windows.

Download: Rohos Disk Encryption for Windows (Starts from $35, free trial available)

Gilisoft has probably the best user interface design as it is extremely user-friendly. It has excellent encryption features, allowing users with little or no experience to easily encrypt their USB drives. It allows you to encrypt with the AES-256 algorithm and provides data recovery.

An important thing to know is that this software is highly specialized, so it only encrypts USB drives. And just like most other software in this list, it's only available for the Windows platform.

Download: Gilisoft USB Encryption for Windows ($49.95, free trial available)

Last on the list is VeraCrypt, formerly known as TrueCrypt. It is a top-notch encryption tool that uses open-source USB encryption algorithms. To guarantee its encryption quality, a team of independent researchers periodically audits its algorithm to ensure security quality remains above standard.

With VeraCrypt, you can choose to encrypt with AES-256, Twofish, and Serpent algorithms. It also allows you to create hidden volumes of encrypted data. VeraCrypt is compatible with macOS, but more importantly, it's the only encryption tool featured in this list that supports the Linux platform.

Download: VeraCrypt for Linux | Mac | Windows | Raspberry Pi (Free)

What happens if you lose data from your encrypted USB drive? These reasons can be:

All you need is your encryption key or password for that USB drive and the Wondershare Recoverit software for Windows and Mac (unless you choose to pay for Gilisoft USB Encryption, which also offers data recovery). Now, just follow these two simple steps below to recover your lost data quickly:

Now, all you need to do is be patient because the scan will take a while, depending on your computer's hardware. Once the recovery process finishes, you will see the file in the location where you saved it.

Despite the popularity of cloud storage in recent years, USB flash drives and external hard drives will continue to be used to move data and information. They are easy to transport and, in some ways, more secure than the cloud or internal hardware, and they can become even safer if you encrypt them. And even if they get corrupted or if you experience another type of data loss on your encrypted USB drive, you can recover it.

Alexei is a security content writer at MUO. He comes from a military background where he acquired a passion for cyber security and electronic warfare.

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