How to Protect Your Boot Drive with BitLocker
How to Protect Your Boot Drive with BitLocker
Posted 10/25/2011 at 1:21pm
| by Alex Castle
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When it comes to protecting the data on your computer, you can’t do better than strong encryption. Properly encrypted, your files are safe even if a ne’er-do-well gains access to your computer, either physically or through a network. In the past, we’ve discussed how to use various encryption tools to encrypt individual files or create virtual, encrypted drives. Now, we’ll look at how to get maximum security by encrypting your boot disk using the BitLocker full-drive encryption system that’s built into Windows 7 Ultimate and Enterprise.
Step 1: Assess Your System
Ideally, you have a motherboard with a Trusted Platform Module (TPM) chip. A TPM chip securely stores cryptographic keys, which BitLocker uses to access your boot drive before Windows even loads. The TPM also detects any early boot files that have been modified, protecting you from rootkits and other low-level malware. You can check with your motherboard manufacturer to see if you have a TPM, or you can just attempt to go straight to Step 3. If you don’t see a message that looks like the image below, you’re good to go. Otherwise, you don’t have a TPM and you’ll need to continue to Step 2.
You'll also need an additional, small partition on any boot drive you wish to encrypt in order to use BitLocker. Windows creates this extra partition by default during installation, but even if you don’t have one, the BitLocker software can create it for you.
Step 2: Enable USB Key Storage
By default, BitLocker requires a TPM chip to work. To change this, open the group policy editor by bringing up the Run menu (press Win + R) and then typing gpedit.msc.
Navigate through the hierarchy on the left side of the group policy editor, selecting the following folders, in order: Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > BitLocker Drive Encryption > Operating System Drives (image below). Once you’ve found the right folder, double-click “Require additional authentication at startup” to edit that policy entry.
In the policy editor, all you need to do is click the radio button marked Enabled. In the bottom‑left, a checkbox labeled “Allow BitLocker without a compatible TPM” should already be checked. If it isn’t, check it. Click OK and exit the group policy editor.
Step 3: Enable BitLocker
The actual process of enabling BitLocker is straightforward: You can right-click a drive in Explorer and click Turn On BitLocker, or you can go to the BitLocker section of the control panel and enable it on any drive from there.
As long as you’ve followed the previous two steps, you should see a screen asking you for your BitLocker startup preferences. If you have a TPM, you have three options. If you select “Use BitLocker without additional keys” your startup process will be basically unchanged. Someone with access to your computer will be able to get at your data, but you’ll be protected from rootkits and from people accessing your data remotely. Alternatively, you can choose to enter a PIN every time you log in.
If you’re using the USB method, you only have access to the last option, “Require a Startup key at every startup.” With this method, you’ll only be able to boot your computer while you have a USB drive with a startup key inserted in the machine.
Once you select an option, you’ll be asked to insert a USB drive to use as the key, and you’ll choose where to store your recovery key, which you'll need if you want to decrypt your data on a different computer, or if the TPM detects a problem. It will take some time for BitLocker to encrypt your drive, but once it’s finished, your data is safe. Anyone attempting to boot from your drive without the proper key won’t even get to the Windows boot screen (image above).
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January 23, 2012 at 8:48pm
You can check with your motherboard manufacturer to see if you have a TPM, or you can just attempt to go straight to Step 3.
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“Require a Startup key at every startup.” With this method, you’ll only be able to boot your computer while you have a USB drive with a startup key inserted in the machine.
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Have a friend who has Bitlocker? Ask them polietly to encrypt the backup drive. It is definately worth encrypting those devices.
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If you don’t see a message that looks like the image below, you’re good to go. Otherwise, you don’t have a TPM and you’ll need to continue to Step 2. academias ingles niños
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October 26, 2011 at 1:02am
Wouldn't simply dragging those "Bitlocked" files on to a HD formatted for FAT32 make them readily accessible??
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October 25, 2011 at 8:59pm
On of mine BitLocker-encrypted hard drive's controller died, what are the chances by replacing the controller I'll be able recover the data?
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October 25, 2011 at 2:27pm
What are the advantages of using Bitlocker over Truecrypt?
I know of one disadvantage: The price of Win 7 Ultimate vs. Home Premium
Engelsstaub
October 25, 2011 at 3:27pm
Second. OSX Lion comes with full-disk encryption and Lion is a thirty dollar upgrade from SnoLeo.
Truecrypt works well on nearly any platform. Sometimes it's rebranded in Linux repositories, but it's exactly the same.
I tried Bitlocker when Win 7 was still RC. It worked pretty well. Just not "130 bucks to Redmond-well."
Also Fedora Linux has FDE. Ubuntu can be set up as such, but you have to know what you're doing.
MrBlueCheese
October 25, 2011 at 8:58pm
The only reason you would get Ultimate is A) need some type of encryption or B) needed the language support. However, if you do manage to snag Ultimate for a good price, then that's another possibility.
benicoletti
October 25, 2011 at 1:59pm
My question is this an internal hd is encrypted and removed and put in on another system as an additional drive on another system can the files be accessed?
MrBlueCheese
October 25, 2011 at 8:55pm
The files cannot be accessed even if that happened. However, the strength of the encryption would be more if the encryption was set up on a TPM computer versus a non-TPM computer.
MrBlueCheese
October 25, 2011 at 1:31pm
The cool thing about BitLocker is that you can encrypt external storage devices.
Worried about your backups being taken? Have a friend who has Bitlocker? Ask them polietly to encrypt the backup drive. It is definately worth encrypting those devices.
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