USB drives, external HDDs, and memory cards—remains the go-to for transferring and backing up data. But these devices are also among the easies ...

Laptops, external drives, and USB sticks are especially vulnerable to data theft, but with Windows and a few tools, you can protect them using encryption.

Windows BitLocker offers an easy-to-use solution for encrypting your hard drive. However, it also has drawbacks, which might not make it a great option for everyone.

Microsoft says that while BitLocker relies on a drive’s hardware encryption by default, it is possible to force a drive to use BitLocker’s software encryption instead.