1.
Right-click the ‘Computer’ (or ‘My Computer’) icon on your desktop or in the Start Menu and
select Manage. The ‘Computer Management’ window should appear.
2.
From the list on the left, select ‘Disk Management’ (within the Storage sub-tree).
3.
Right-click the encrypted partition/device and select ‘Change Drive Letter and Paths’.
4.
Click Remove.
5.
If Windows prompts you to confirm the action, click Yes.
When I plug in my encrypted USB flash drive, Windows asks me if I want to format it. Is
there a way to prevent that?
Yes, but you will need to remove the drive letter assigned to the device. For information on how to
do so, see the question ‘I encrypted a non-system partition, but its original drive letter is still visible
in the ‘My Computer’ list.’
How do I remove or undo encryption if I do not need it anymore? How do I permanently
decrypt a volume?
Please see the section How to Remove Encryption.
What will change when I enable the option ‘Mount volumes as removable media’?
Please see the section Volume Mounted as Removable Medium.
Do I have to “wipe” free space and/or files on a VeraCrypt volume?
Remark: to "wipe" = to securely erase; to overwrite sensitive data in order to render them unrecoverable.
If you believe that an adversary will be able to decrypt the volume (for example that he will make
you reveal the password), then the answer is yes. Otherwise, it is not necessary, because the
volume is entirely encrypted.
How does VeraCrypt know which encryption algorithm my VeraCrypt volume has been
encrypted with?
Please see the section Encryption Scheme (chapter Technical Details).
How can I perform a Windows built-in backup on a VeraCrypt volume? The VeraCrypt volume
doesn't show up in the list of available backup paths.
Windows built-in backup utility looks only for physical driver, that's why it doesn't display the
VeraCrypt volume. Nevertheless, you can still backup on a VeraCrypt volume by using a trick:
activate sharing on the VeraCrypt volume through Explorer interface (of course, you have to put the
correct permission to avoid unauthorized access) and then choose the option "Remote shared folder"
(it is not remote of course but Windows needs a network path). There you can type the path of the
shared drive (for example \\ServerName\sharename) and the backup will be configured correctly.
Is the encryption used by VeraCrypt vulnerable to Quantum attacks?
VeraCrypt uses block ciphers (AES, Serpent, Twofish) for its encryption. Quantum attacks against
these block ciphers are just a faster brute-force since the best know attack against these algorithms
is exhaustive search (related keys attacks are irrelevant to our case because all keys are random
