Windows 7: The Complete Guide - Encryption
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Windows 7 RC1 comes with BitLocker, a feature that was previously reserved only for the more rarefied and expensive versions of Vista. BitLocker is a drive encryption process whereby anyone who manages to get their hands on your computer or even just your hard drive is out of luck: they can't read any data unless they have the password.
Windows 7 introduces new twists to the BitLocker security arsenal. First of all, let's check out BitLocker To Go.
BitLocker To Go encrypts the data on any portable media you can connect to your PC. Since it seems that there are virtually no key fobs left that don't have an attached USB key, most people are blissfully unaware that the little key they've just tossed onto the booth table at McDonald's can easily be ripped off and accessed, revealing everything about you from your bank passwords to those nude photos of you at the Christmas office party.
BitLocker To Go makes it very easy to encrypt the data on any USB key drive. Simply stick the key into any USB port, click the Start button at the lower left, type in BitLocker and then click on Bitlocker Drive Encryption. Now Turn on BitLocker.
Unless your USB key drive is prehistoric and lacks the capacity to be encrypted, BitLocker will now proceed to set it up for encryption of data.
Pick a nice, secure password with a minimum of 8 characters. If you're truly profoundly stupid, use your birthday. The malcreants would never figure that one out! Duh.
Try to use a combination of alphanumerical and weird characters such as g/K#8^t+ and make sure that you don't forget it or your USB key will be trash.
Since you're probably going to forget it anyway and then really get stuck, Windows 7 offers you the option of saving your a recovery key to a file or even printing it out. This recovery key can help you get access to a USB drive that you've lost the password to. Although I'm not really sure what good a recovery key is, as you might as well keep the password and save the recovery key step. Regardless, keep this in a secure place away from your PC as well as any prying eyes.
You're now ready to encrypt the drive to keep all your data safe and secure.
I have three USB drives: 2GB, 4GB, and 8GB. I have never ever put enough data on any of these three drives to max out even the smallest one. I honestly don't know why anyone in their right mind would want to shell out the big bucks to carry around 32GB or more of their data on a USB key drive.
I have a 1TB RAID 1 mirrored drive set for data on my Core i7 920 main system. I have exactly 16.1 GB of data on it. The rest is empty. So where is all my data? That's it! It's all there, except for the actual operating system and application files which reside on my VelociRaptor boot drive, and even that one only has a relatively meagre 47 GB used up on it. I see absolutely no reason why I should carry around next to my car and house keys all 16.1 GB of data. Totally pointless.
I know, I know... there are many computer users out there who have several TB of data on their drives, but since the vast majority of these people are content pirates, I couldn't care less about them.
Having said that, if you have one of the aforesaid humongous USB key drives, the process of encrypting it can take a while. It's going to be much faster with a more reasonable capacity drive.
Keep in mind that if you're plunking your Windows 7 encrypted key into a computer using another operating system it might just see it as an unformatted drive and that could lead to accidental overwriting. The only other OS that recognize the Windows 7 encryption are Windows XP SP3 and Vista SP1.
Once you have the USB key drive in a computer running a compatible operating system you'll see this:
If you've remembered your password, you now have access to all the data on the device.
BitLocker Biometric is a truly futuristic feature built into Windows 7. If you have a fingerprint scanner on your computer (and surprisingly many new notebooks do), you can set up Windows 7 to recognize only your fingertips!
BitLocker Biometric will allow you to select any finger to "enroll" into the protection scheme.
Once you've assigned a fingerprint to your computer, you will be the only one that can access it, and future extensions will also allow you to fingerprint restrict access to individual applications or even features within those applications. That way you won't have to remember weird passwords any longer, you'll just have to be on your guard against data thieves with sharp finger-cutting knives!
Read The Entire Windows 7 Complete Guide!
Windows 7: The Complete Guide
Windows 7: The Complete Guide - Getting Started
Windows 7: The Complete Guide - Backup & Restore
Windows 7: The Complete Guide - Security & Privacy
Windows 7: The Complete Guide - Encryption
Windows 7: The Complete Guide - Aero & Libraries
Windows 7: The Complete Guide - HomeGroup
Windows 7: The Complete Guide - Tips & Tricks
Windows 7: The Complete Guide - Turn Off The Junk & Crank Up The Speed
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I don't usually reply to people who have a face that is hairy and split up the middle but in your case I'll make an exception.
HEY IDIOT! YEAH, YOU WITH THE BUTT FOR A FACE...
This is a Hub for general purpose computer users, not CAD-CAM designers or Video Editors. So since you've manifestly proven your ignorance, please show me ANY general purpose application, including games, that requires several Terabytes to store.
Where did you get your IT training, off the side of a Corn Flakes box? You're an insult to the profession. Go try to impress the six year olds with your PC chops, because here you're just making a total donkey appendage out of yourself.
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paul says:
6 weeks ago
Your a moron. With the way that you seem to always find some way to insult your readers it's a wonder anyone ever reads your crap to begin with.
there are very many reasons why a person would have many gigabytes of data on thier computer
Games, they are pretty big nowadays
CAD and engineering drawing. Some multilayed drawings can be very large.
business
video editing
Large usb flash drives ar very usefull.
I have on more than one occasion used them to hold an image of a drive while swapping hard disks in client machines.
Transferring the afformentioned CAD drawings
Just because YOU don't utilize the larger capacity drives doesn't mean others that do are, and I quote:
"there are many computer users out there who have several TB of data on their drives, but since the vast majority of these people are content pirates, I couldn't care less about them"
You sir are an absolute idiot who seems to judge and access everthing by whether or not it is useful to you, if not than of course those that do are considered morons.
God you are an ass!!!!!