Encrypting hard drive with Windows 10 Home

Cromulent · 3 Oct 2016 at 07:38

I've just bought a new laptop and I'd like to encrypt the hard drive in case it gets stolen or lost. It came with Windows 10 Home edition.

As far as I know Bitlocker is only for Windows 10 Pro editions so what are my choices for encrypting the hard drive? There must be some way to just simply encrypt the hard drive to protect against theft? I don't want anything too complex just something to stop the average user from getting control of my data.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to do this? I found a guide but it seems to be outdated compared to the latest version of Windows 10 that I am running. I heard you require a TPM or something? How do I find out if my laptop supports that?

Any help appreciated

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Semple · 3 Oct 2016 at 07:53

You're correct, only Pro and Enterprise versions can create a bitlocker drive.

There may be other solutions for encrypting the drive at boot, or you could just look at encrypting a separate data drive, and use something like TrueCrypt - even though someone has supposedly managed to break the encryption.

I believe any version of Windows 10 can at least open a bitlocker drive, so if you have access to a 7/8/10 Pro/Enterprise system (work or friend), you could create a blank VHD (Virtual hard drive), and then encrypt that. Copy the VHD file over to your PC, and then open that to store your data in.

Grrrrr · 3 Oct 2016 at 10:04

Is "device encryption" available for you? This article seems to suggest it's available for some (but not all) PCs using W10 home. It's basically bitlocker but with the recovery key stored on Microsoft servers.

http://www.howtogeek.com/234826/how-to-enable-full-disk-encryption-on-windows-10/

CaptainCrash · 3 Oct 2016 at 15:07

VeraCrypt (an up-to-date fork of the now-deprecated TrueCrypt) works with any version of Windows 10: http://lifehacker.com/windows-encryption-showdown-veracrypt-vs-bitlocker-1777855025

Cromulent · 11 Oct 2016 at 14:40

Sorry for the really late reply to this thread. I completely forgot about it.

That's a shame Windows 10 Home doesn't support Bitlocker that would have made things much easier. I might just upgrade to the Pro version simply for the ease of use of Bitlocker.

Thank you also for pointing ou VeraCrypt. I hadn't heard of that. I'll check it out and see if it can solve my issue.