Encrypting Your Hard Drive With BitLocker, Part One

Computer security is big business these days, and with good reason. You’ve got to protect your computer not just from online threats like viruses and malware, but also from old-fashioned crimes like theft. Dozens of programs exist only to protect you and your data from these threats.

One such program, included with the Enterprise and Ultimate versions of Windows 7, is the BitLocker Drive Encryption utility. Drive encryption, in addition to a strong password, can keep your data safe in the event that your laptop is stolen.

There are two ways to enable Bitlocker on a Windows 7 PC.  The easiest way, and the way we’ll be covering today, is to enable bitlocker on a computer with a Trusted Platform Module (TPM) installed. A TPM is a special chip on the motherboard that the operating system can use for security purposes.

TPMs typically only come in business-class laptops, like the Dell Latitude series computers or HP Compaq business laptops. You can check your laptop’s manual or the Device Manager to be sure. Check to make sure that the TPM is enabled in the system’s BIOS before continuing.

You can use a USB flash drive in place of a TPM, but we’ll cover that later this week.