If you've encrypted a drive with USBCrypt and later decided that you no longer want the drive to be encrypted, it's easy to remove the encryption. First thing to do, however, is to start the Virtual Encrypted Disk you want to delete, and make sure it contains no important files. If there are any files that you want to keep, copy them to some other location, onto the main hard drive, or another encrypted disk, because after you've removed the encryption for this particular disk, all previously encrypted files it contained will be removed as well!

Having moved all important files out of the Virtual Encrypted Disk, stop it, then run USBCrypt off the Start menu or desktop, and select the host disk that you want to decrypt:

The next window displayed by USBCrypt allows you to either start the encrypted drive, or delete it:

To decrypt the drive, select the Delete option. You will be prompted to confirm your choice and also choose whether you also want to delete the "spare key" file associated with this encrypted disk:

(The option to delete the "spare key" file is available only if USBCrypt can find the "spare key" file on this computer.)

Be sure to review this message and take a moment to consider what it tells you: all files and folders that you have previously moved into the Virtual Encrypted Disk will be deleted. Make sure that you have moved all files and folders that you may need later on out of the Virtual Encrypted Disk (by canceling this prompt and then starting the Virtual Encrypted Disk) before confirming that you want to delete it. If you confirm that you do want to delete the Virtual Encrypted Disk and press the DELETE button, all contents of the Virtual Encrypted Disk will be instantly erased. As the message tells you, there is no undo operation for this action, so think twice before using it.

After you have deleted the Virtual Encrypted Disk, all space it used to occupy on the host drive becomes immediately available for use to store the regular files and folders, as usual, without encrypting them. Or, you can start over and create a new Virtual Encrypted Disk on the same host drive, if that's what you want.


Using the system tray icon Changing the USBCrypt settings Copyright © 2024, WinAbility® Software Corporation  . All rights reserved