WINDOWS 7 BITLOCKER DRIVE ENCRYPTION

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1 ComputerFixed.co.uk Page: 1 info@computerfixed.co.uk WINDOWS 7 BITLOCKER DRIVE ENCRYPTION There are so many ways in which you can stop unauthorized access to your computer but what if someone steals your hard drive? Windows 7 has a solution to this problem. BitLocker is a full disk encryption utility which was originally introduced in Windows Vista Enterprise edition and now it has been implemented in Windows 7 with some enhanced options like USB drive encryption. It has now become very easy to protect your drives and even in case of stolen or lost disk your data will not be accessible to the unauthorized person. BitLocker Drive Encryption is available in Windows 7 Enterprise, Windows 7 Ultimate, and in all editions of Windows Server 2008 R2. Let's see how we can apply BitLocker drive encryption in Windows 7. Click on the Orb (Start button) and choose Control Panel. Type in Bitlocker into the search box in the Control panel. Click on BitLocker Drive Encryption link.

2 ComputerFixed.co.uk Page: 2 info@computerfixed.co.uk Now to apply BitLocker on any specific drive, click Turn On BitLocker. Here is the dialogue box which will be displayed. Now, set password of the particular drive by checking Use a password to unlock the drive and entering password twice. Click Next to proceed to next step, at this step choose where you want to save your unlock key. This will be needed if you forgot your password, then you will be able to unlock the drive by using this key.

3 ComputerFixed.co.uk Page: 3 info@computerfixed.co.uk Click Next and encrypting. you will be taken to last step, confirm to encrypt the drive by clicking Start Now your drive will be protected and in case someone steals your hard drive or USB drive, that person will not be able to access your data. How do I encrypt a USB device? Insert your USB device you want to encrypt into your computer. Right click on the USB device in Windows Explorer and click on the Turn on BitLocker..." Tick the Use a password to unlock the drive and then type the same password in the two password field s and then click Next. Note: As it says, you should try and make this password as complicated as possible with a combination of lower and upper case letter, numbers, spaces, and/or symbols.

4 ComputerFixed.co.uk Page: 4 info@computerfixed.co.uk You are now FORCED to either save a file or print the recovery key for the device. This ensures that you have a copy of the 48 digit recovery in case you ever forget the password. Note: You cannot save the recovery key to the device that you want to encrypt as this would be obviously be useless if you were to ever forget the unlock key. Once you have saved or printed the recovery key you will be able to continue by pressing Next. You are ready to encrypt the drive and all you have to do is click Start Encrypting. Warning: This can take a long time especially if you are encrypting a very large drive via a USB connection.

5 ComputerFixed.co.uk Page: 5 info@computerfixed.co.uk First thing the encryption process does is install the BitLocker to Go reader application that will let you read the device on latter operating systems such as Windows XP and Vista. Note: You can pause this encryption of this device and remove if it is taking longer than you thought but from this point you will need to enter the encryption key to access the data on the drive even though it is not fully encrypted. The other thing to note is that the drive will be read only until the encryption process has been completed. Once completed click Close and the drive is now encrypted and ready to use. The way to tell if a drive is encrypted in Windows Explorer is by the padlock symbol you can see on the drive icon (see below against Nano (E:) ). An open grey padlock represents an unlocked drive and closed gold padlock represents a locked drive.

6 ComputerFixed.co.uk Page: 6 info@computerfixed.co.uk How do I unlock and encrypt a USB device? Insert the USB device into a Windows 7 computer and you should be automatically prompted for a password to decrypt the device. Then just type the password in the password field and tick Unlock. Note: If you tick the Automatically unlock on this computer from now on then the unlock password for this device will be stored on the registry of the computer so be very sure you trust this computer before using this option. Your DONE! the drive will now behave exactly as per normal. Alternatively if the device is already connected and you need to unlock it, just right click on the drive in Windows Explorer and click the Unlock Drive option. You will then be prompted with the same unlock drive dialogue box as seen above. If you need any help or advice on using Windows 7 then contact ComputerFixed. We are always happy to assists our clients. Please visit the website for more Windows 7 fact sheets.