Installing BitLocker with a Self-encrypting SSD in Windows - DIY in 5 Ep 95

Опубликовано 5 апреля 2019, 17:00

We will show you how to use BitLocker, Microsoft’s proprietary encryption program. We briefly discussed BitLocker in our video on securing an external USB but this time we will discuss using internal SSDs with eDrive.

What is BitLocker
BitLocker is a simple-to-use Windows encryption tool that works with your operating system and protects your data from being seen and used by ne’er-do-wells should it be lost. It comes with Windows 7 Ultimate or Enterprise, Windows 8.1 Pro or Enterprise or Windows 10 Pro and you will need to create multiple partitions to use it. eDrive is Microsoft’s premier encryption system which works with BitLocker and allows most of the encryption to be done on the drive itself via hardware encryption vs. software encryption. This can speed up both encryption and decryption dramatically. Another stipulation you’ll need to run BitLocker is a Trusted Platform Module, also called Security Processor or TPM. If all of this sounds like way too much information to register, no worries, BitLocker runs a system check when you start it up to see if your PC has all the necessary requirements. It is compatible with our upcoming KC2000 NVMe PCIe SSD.

How to encrypt
Once you are given the seal of approval by BitLocker, you can get to encrypting! You may have to completely shut down your computer and manually turn it back on in order to activate your TPM security hardware. BitLocker will prompt you if that’s the case. Once you log back in you will see a window prompting you to encrypt the drive, to which you click Next. You will choose a password that your computer will ask for every time you turn on your PC, even before logging in. You can choose between entering the password manually or inserting a USB key.

You’ll then be asked to save a recovery key just in case of any problems and you can do this via Microsoft account, file, flash drive or printing it out. I usually do two of these backup methods because I’m paranoid but use your best judgement and follow your gut. After that you’ll choose to encrypt only the used disk space - the process is faster and better for new PCs and drives - or encrypt the entire drive which takes longer but is great for drives that have some miles on them. Then, if you have Windows 10, you’ll choose between new and compatible encryption modes, meaning compatible with older versions of windows, so if this is a drive that travels back and forth, that’s worth considering. Then check Run BitLocker system check and encrypt. This ensures that BitLocker will check the system before encrypting your drive, which is always preferred.

On this final restart, you’ll be asked for that shiny new password and you’ll see the drive encryption progress once you fully log in. It can take a bit of time, but it’s totally worth it to protect your most sensitive files.