Noob problem
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Hi,
I'm trying to encrypt a USB drive with a password but don't have 11 Pro, only Home, so I can't use BitLocker. Someone suggested VeraCrypt. I followed the instructions on https://veracrypt.io/en/Beginner's%20Tutorial.html but at step 15 noticed that the file I created is not an .hc file, but a file with no extension. In finder it showed it being over 100 GB, but on looking at Properties it was zero bytes. That was enough for me to know that it didn't work.
The instructions did not tell me to create an extension that I remember.
What did I do wrong? How do I ensure this won't happen again? I just lost multiple hours of work and still can't encrypt.
Thanks for your help.
The extension doesn't matter, open whatever container file you created with whatever extension you gave it (or didn't).
The container file is 100Gb. The virtual drive has nothing in it, so is zero bytes. Fill it up.
There's no reason for this to have taken "multiple hours." Did you create the container on the USB drive? If so, that's something you did wrong. Create the container on your hard drive and copy it over to the USB.
You haven't created an encrypted USB. You've created an encrypted virtual drive that you're hosting on a USB drive.
I deleted the file because I couldn't figure out how to use it, and I don't recall anything happening when I tried to open it and/or could not figure out how to use it/fill it up.
It did take multiple hours, though. The dialogue box that required me to move the mouse around willy-nilly, after I submitted/started the process, I had to wait that long for the progress bar to make it all the way across.
I didn't know I was supposed to create the container on my hard disk and then transfer it. How could I do that if there isn't enough room for such a container? For example, if I'm trying to create a container for 100GB of files that are already on my hard drive, but my hard drive only has 10GB of free space left?
Because of your help I was able to manage successfully completing this task. I appreciate your payment of attention to my needs.
Once you have created a container, when you want to "open" it, you need to start VeraCrypt, click on Select File to select your container, and click on Mount to be prompted to enter your password.
After that it will appear as a virtual drive on whatever letter you chose (it does not matter).
It does not really matter if you create the container file on your computer or directly on your USB drive. However, if your USB drive is slow / old / low quality, you may indeed expect to wait a few hours to format 100 Go.
Because of your help I was able to manage successfully completing this task. I appreciate your payment of attention to my needs.