Setting up VeraCrypt on Windows

The distribution package of VeraCrypt can be downloaded from the official website. In our article, an operating system of the Windows family is considered as an example, so we will select the appropriate item for download (the full functionality of the program is available at the first link):

Select the item marked in red:

Next, select the second item – encryption of a non-system partition, i.e. logical drive on which the operating system is not installed:

Let’s move on to choosing the type of protection: regular or hidden:

In the first case, the usual data encryption occurs. To gain access to the system, the user specifies a password and the data is decrypted. The second option hides the encrypted area, preventing attackers from discovering it. This method is recommended to be used only in case of increased danger.

The next step is to specify the section to be encrypted. Click on the button marked with a red arrow. Select a section from the list, click “OK”, and then “Next”:

Now let’s move on to choosing a volume encryption method. The first item activates the complete cleaning of the logical disk without the possibility of recovering information in the future. After the operation is completed, encryption occurs. The second method skips partition formatting and activates encryption. We use the first method:

Now let’s choose a protocol and hashing. Leave the default if no special methods are required. Click “Next”:

The configuration is almost complete and information about the selected partition will appear on the user’s monitor. If everything is correct, go to the next paragraph.

Here the program will ask you to set a password to access the encrypted partition. The password must be at least 20 characters long. Also, the password must contain uppercase and lowercase letters of the Latin alphabet, numbers and special characters. As an additional protection, we use the options marked with red arrows in the image. Green shows the item that displays the password on the monitor. The option is necessary to make sure that the set of the secret key is correct. When the information is entered, move on:

The next step is to specify the type of file structure on the partition and the size of the cluster. If the settings specified by the program are suitable, then move the mouse over the field, which is highlighted in red in the screenshot, so that the program generates random values ​​for creating encryption keys:

When the bar at the bottom of the program reaches the end point, the user will receive a message about the successful completion of the process. We confirm the encryption operation and proceed to mount the partition.

If you open Windows Explorer, a new volume will appear in the list of logical drives. When the user tries to open it, the system will give an error:

To access it, open VeraCrypt and select a free letter (point 1). Now let’s move on to choosing a device to mount (point 2). Among the list of volumes, select the encrypted logical drive and click “OK”:

After the volume is displayed in the Volume line, press the “Mount” button:

The program will require you to specify the password that was set when encrypting the volume. Enter it and click “OK”:

If the data is correct, the volume will connect to the operating system and be available to the user. After working with encrypted information, you can exclude the volume from the list of available ones. To do this, select the “Unmount” item in the VeraCrypt menu.

If the encrypted volume is no longer needed, decrypt it. Select the required section in the list, call the context menu and activate the item marked with a red arrow in the image below.

The program will ask for confirmation – we agree. Next, you will need to specify the password that was created at the stage of encrypting the logical drive. The decryption procedure will take several hours, after which the section will be available in the normal mode.