How do I password protect a usb drive without bitlocker?

I have encountered this problem before. I wanted a method to password protect USB drive without BitLocker, but I didn't want to install messy third-party software. Later I found that the "Disk Management" tool that comes with Windows can actually do it!

My approach:

1. Insert the USB drive and open Disk Management (Win + X → Disk Management).
2. Create a virtual hard disk (VHD), select the USB drive as the storage location, and the capacity is arbitrary (for example, 10GB).
3. Initialize this VHD and format it to NTFS, then mount it, just like a new hard disk.
4. Encrypt this virtual hard disk: right-click this VHD, use Windows' built-in EFS encryption or set a ZIP file password, so that the files inside are protected.

The advantage of this is that the USB drive itself can still be used normally, only the encrypted virtual disk part is protected, and it can be accessed by entering the password when decrypting. Compared with directly compressing files or EFS encryption, this method is more flexible and more suitable for daily use.

With this method, every time I want to save sensitive files, I will put them into this password protected USB drive without BitLocker solution, and I don’t have to worry about data leakage anymore! Friends in need can try it~