VeraCrypt Slow & Windows 10 Home to Pro Licence Needed.

Marzipanogram · 2 Mar 2020 at 12:55

We have a laptop that's running Win 10 Home and we want to encrypt the C drive.
Bitlocker isn't available, but VeraCrypt (latest version) takes about 5 minutes to boot into the desktop.
Sometimes it fails entirely to reach the Windows desktop.

Can anyone recommend any sellers of a Win 10 Pro licence, either an upgrade from Home to Pro and Pro one? So we don't need to use VeraCrypt.
If you're suggesting eBay, which sellers do you trust? Names or links please (PM me if needed).

Thank you.

Marzipanogram · 3 Mar 2020 at 16:40

Thank you all for the help

The encryption algorithm is AES/fish 'n chips (swordfish) I think.
Is that overkill and I should have just used AES only?

Marzipanogram · 3 Mar 2020 at 19:18

darael said:
What CPU and type of drive does the laptop have? If it has a poor performing CPU with a hard drive, that might be the cause of your slow startup. Something else to consider is the possibility of your hard drive failing.

Thank you for the help.
I could find out the exact CPU tomorrow, but it's a 5 year old budget laptop.
The drive is a SSD, again about 5 years old.

Marzipanogram · 3 Mar 2020 at 20:05

darael said:
I'm experimenting on an similar age laptop with an SSD too. I did notice that when using the AES-Twofish-Serpent (same as yours?) algorithm, it took about 90 seconds after entering my password before Windows began startup up. It's still encrypting the drive as I speak, but I expect full encryption to have completed in about n hour.

darael said:
Tested once more after complete encryption had completed.

Time to confirm my password took nearly 2 minutes, then about another 2 minutes to load to desktop. So yes, it is slow.

I think the encryption method was AES and Twofish only.
It took about 90 mins to encrypt the drive.
The 5 mins I quoted was from pressing Return after the password, to seeing the Windows desktop appear and being able to interact with Windows.