How to use a VeraCrypt volume
- In order to use a VeraCrypt volume, you need to first mount it. Open VeraCrypt and choose the drive you would like the volume to be mounted on. Keep in mind that you can only assign the volume to an unused drive. A good choice for said drive are the letters M:, N:, O:, or P: (red box), as Windows will most likely not be using them. In any case, the list of drives VeraCrypt offers to mount your volume on consists of only unused drives, so you should not run into any conflict when mounting.
- Click Select File and navigate to the location of your VeraCrypt volume. Select the volume and make sure that the path is displayed like in the example (blue underlined). Then click Mount.
- VeraCrypt is now going to ask you for the password to your volume. Leave the PKCS-5 PRF section on autodetect (blue underlined). Make sure to insert the password correctly, then click Ok. If you used keyfiles to encrypt your volume (Lvl 3 Protection), be sure to select Use keyfiles and navigate to where the keyfiles are located (purple cross and box). We recommend you DO NOT CACHE your password and keyfiles (leave the yellow underlined box unchecked).
- If your password was correct and the mounting is successful, you will now see the blue highlighted text in the VeraCrypt Window.
- To use your mounted volume, simply navigate to the My Computer/My PC/This PC section of the Windows File Explorer and double-click the drive letter assigned to your VeraCrypt volume (red box). After it opens, you can treat it as any other Windows drive. Here you can also see the size of the volume and the free space remaining.
- The VeraCrypt volume you mounted functions exactly as a normal Windows drive. You can open files situated in it, navigate the file system in the volume, copy files from outside into the volume or create files directly in the volume. An important note on how to use the volume is that internal files that you would like to keep encrypted should never be taken out of the volume. Whatever you need to do to the files, it should happen inside the volume. If this is not done, then information on the files you have stored in the volume might be recorded and kept by Windows on unencrypted parts of your system. NOTE: Files that you generated outside of the volume, but that you then encrypted, need to be securely deleted. You can look up the VeraCrypt manual for more information on how to do so.
- To dismount your volume when you are done using it, simply select it in the VeraCrypt window and click Dismount. Dismounting your volume every time you are finished using it will ensure that data stored inside the volume will not be kept stored in RAM when you shut down your computer. We also advise to keep your computer running for a few minutes before turning it off, to allow for the RAM to clear. WARNING: Simply exiting the VeraCrypt window does NOT DISMOUNT the volume!
