[mothered]

I use VeraCrypt on a daily basis- predominantly on my USB flash drives and external HDDs.

For added protection, create an encrypted volume and then encrypt the device (containing the volume) with BitLocker Drive encryption. Essentially, there's two forms of encrypted authentication to access the data stored. The Windows edition must support BitLocker, though. Of course, any other form of encryption will suffice.

Yeah, could also create a hidden volume with veracrypt with decoy operating system.

There's so many encryption variants.

I'd rather have an overkill, than risk exposure of my sensitive data.