How To Encrypt Your Drive With BitLocker Encryption In Windows 10 Home Edition
By Sofia
Encryption of the drive has become a buzz in today’s new digital era. People have now understood the importance of encrypting the data. Encryption allows the users to encrypt the data to safeguard it from being accessed by unauthorized entities.
With the importance of data encryption rising in the market, Microsoft launched their proprietary encryption tool, BitLocker. If you are a Windows user, you will know this name. Although Windows does offer a tool to encrypt system data, this feature is reserved for the Professionals operating system.
Hence, if you have Windows 10 Home Operating System, you might not be able to use BitLocker. Then does that mean you cannot use BitLocker in your system? Well, if we are talking about direct use, you cannot! But with BitLocker Loader for Windows, you certainly can.
How To Encrypt Your Drive With BitLocker Encryption?
As we have already said, there is no way you can use the BitLocker encryption tool in the Windows 10 Home operating system. However, there are other ways in which you can bypass this restriction.
Here we have talked about different methods you can use to enable BitLocker in your Home Operating system.
Method 1: BitLocker Loader
Perhaps, using the BitLocker Loader is the most viable option out of all the methods we have listed in this article. With the simple installation; you can use the BitLocker encryption feature in your Windows 10 Home operating system. Furthermore, you can use software tools to encrypt both internal and external hard drives.
Follow the steps:
- Download BitLocker Loader Software for Windows.
- Launch the software.
- The software will show a list of attached drives with the system.
- Choose the drive you want to encrypt.
- Click on the encrypt option. Here you would be asked to give an encryption password.
- The system will also generate a recovery key.
- Back up the recovery key.
- Now activate the encryption.
Method 2: Upgrade Your PC To Windows 10 Pro
If you are not a fan of using any third-party application of software tools to avail any service, you can simply upgrade your Home operating system to PRO. Once you upgrade your system to Windows 10 PRO, all the features for the Pro will be unlocked. That means, even the BitLocker feature will now become valuable for use.
Method 3: Encrypt Your Drive On Another Computer With Windows 10 Pro
This is more of a trick than a permanent solution. Although the Windows 10 Home Operating system does not encrypt the drive with the BitLocker tool, it can unlock the drive. That means, if you have a different system with the Pro operating system, you can use it to encrypt the drive and later decrypt using the Home operating system.
Method 4: Turn-On Device Encryption
If you aim to protect your drives by encrypting them. It doesn’t have to be BitLocker; you can use the Windows 10 Home device encryption for that. It might not be similar to BitLocker, but it certainly offers the same feature of restricting unauthorized entities from entering the drives.
Both BitLocker encryption and device encryption offer the same features; it is just that with the BitLocker encryption tool, you get more premium features to manage your encryption.
Follow the steps to use device encryption.
- Open setting in Windows.
- Press the gear icon.
- Click on Update & Security.
- Now click on the device encryption.
- Turn on the device encryption.
FAQs
Now, you get to know almost every essential information about Encrypt Your Drive With BitLocker Encryption. But if you are not so much of a tech person, it is usual to have some queries and doubts.
So, here are some common questions with their answers, which might help you to clear your doubts. So, let’s have a look at them.
1. Does BitLocker Encrypt The Drive?
Microsoft BitLocker is basically a Windows native security protective feature, with the capability of encrypting everything on the particular drive, where Windows is actually installed upon. It offers you the opportunity of encrypting drives or PCs. In addition to that, it also ensured full-volume encryption in such a way that only those with the right encryption key will be able to decrypt and access the information and files.
2. How to Encrypt D Drive With BitLocker?
Follow the below-mentioned steps for encrypting your D drive with Bitlocker. Let’s check out the steps you need to follow.
- In Windows Explorer, locate the D drive under the section “This PC.”
- First right-click on the D drive; after that, select the option, “Turn BitLocker.”
- Now click on the “Enter a Password.”
- It is time to enter a secure password.
- Now, select “How to Enable Your Recovery Key.”
- Select the option “Encrypt Entire Drive.”
- Choose “New Encryption Mode.”
- Click on “Start Encrypting.”
3. How Good Is BitLocker Drive Encryption?
BitLocker helps you in effectively protecting your data in the below-mentioned circumstances.
- For any possible reason, your hard drive or popularly known as SSD drive is removed from your computer.
- All your data will be completely secured with a 128-bit encryption key.
- Users who require a higher level of security can particularly
- 256-bit encryption, when 256-bit encryption at the time of setting up BitLocker.
4. Should I Have BitLocker On Or Off?
Absolutely, in case BitLocker was open-sourced. Most of us will not be capable of reading the codes and identifying the vulnerabilities. In contrast, somebody will be capable of doing so. But when your intention is to protect your data in case your PC is stolen or anything goes wrong with it, the BitLocker should be just totally fine.
Encrypt Your Files Now!
You don’t want to experience a situation where your laptop with business information is stolen. And the worst thing is that data is unencrypted. This will not only affect your standing in the organization but also face the same major legal issues.
To ensure that you do not find yourself in such a scenario, you must always keep your data protected and secure. This can be done with simple encryption. You can use the methods we have discussed in this article to encrypt your drive and data.
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