You know, there’s something about needing a locker key that takes me back to high school...
mathletes, speech and debate,
Mr. Bradbury finding my Star Wars erotic fanfic and reading out loud...
You know what?
Let’s just leave those memories and that fanfic encrypted.
Forever.
And done!
Alright…
Oola and Luke would’ve been AWESOME together - just sayin!
Hello and welcome to DIY in 5!
I’m Trisha Hershberger and today we’ll be locking up your bits, my bits, all the bits
using Bitlocker, Microsoft’s proprietary encryption program.
And don’t worry, I’ll break it down so it’s super simple.
We briefly discussed BitLocker in our video on securing an external USB.
There should be a card up here somewhere. But this time we’ll use it to secure the inner drives
of your system, specifically inner SSD drives with eDrive, which we’ll explain in just a bit.
If you find this video helps you out, please give it a like, maybe a sub, ring the bell
- all the YouTube stuff.
Let’s do this!
Quick Refresher - Bitlocker is a simple-to-use Windows encryption tool that works with your
operating system and protects your data from getting into the wrong hands should it be
lost, stolen or you gave it to your parents without properly wiping it first.
It is available to anyone using Windows 7 Ultimate or Enterprise,
Windows 8.1 Pro or Enterprise or Windows 10 Pro.
In addition to running one of the aforementioned operating systems, you’ll also need
a drive with multiple partitions. Most Kingston SSDs support this feature.
And if you want to really want the caviar of encrypted SSDs, you’ll want to find one with eDrive.
Microsoft’s eDrive works with BitLocker and allows most of the encryption to be done
on the drive itself so it’s hardware encryption vs software encryption.
This can speed up both encryption and decryption dramatically and to quote Kingston Brian
“It’s the equivalent of encryption times going from horseback to dragon in Game of Thrones terms."
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.
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 - pretty cool stuff.
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.
And now...
RESTART AGAIN!
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 know your files stay your files!
And remember, if you go with an SSD with eDrive, you can feel like a true Targaryan!
See the Game of Thrones reference earlier in the video if confused.
It should be noted that some internet folks suspect Microsoft may have backdoor access
for governmental reasons but that’s just speculation.
So, barring some kind of government agency REALLY needing to know what would’ve happened
if Oola wasn’t eaten by a rancor, my files are safe and hopefully yours are too.
If you have any questions NOT answered in this video
or want to chat forbidden Star Wars romances, please do so in the comments below.
Until next time, I’m Trisha Hershberger and you’ve been watching DIY in 5!