How to lock Drives and folders with Windows 8 BitLocker

Generally we need third party software to lock Drives and folders in our computer. These software normally costs high and we don’t know how much reliable they are. More over if you forget the password then you may lose all the data permanently. To solve this problem Microsoft has introduced a feature in Windows 8, called BitLocker. Unfortunately some Windows 8 users are not aware of this feature.

BitLocker is a built in data protection feature of Windows 8. It encrypts the hard drives on your computer to protect your drive against data theft or exposure. To lock a Drive or Folder using Bitlocker you have to follow the steps below, but before you start make sure that Bitlocker is turned on.
Lock a Drive or Folder using Bitlocker:

1. Right click on the Drive or Folder you want to lock. Then click on Turn on BitLocker
2. Check the box next to Use a password to unlock the Drive
3. Enter a password and re-enter the password and then click next
4. While choosing password make sure it fulfills minimum requirements mentioned above otherwise system will reject your password
5. Then you have to back up the recovery key, select any one between the options, and click next
6. In the next screen you will see two options: Encrypt used disk space only and Encrypt entire drive, select one option then click next
7. Encryption will start and you can see how much encryption has been done in the computer screen
8. After the process is completed, restart your computer
9. On the next boot you will see the Drive is locked to access the drive you have to enter the password
10. If you forget the password you can use the backup code, which is saved during the process

BitLocker provides more protection than a normal user want to protect his data. Before using this feature you have to specially set up your computer, as it needs extra partition in your hard disk. BitLocker feature available in Windows 8 Pro and Windows 8 Enterprise editions. Now you can lock your personal and confidential folder or a whole drive without giving any extra money. I hope the article will be useful for you.