A Tutorial to Setup BitLocker Encryption on Windows

BitLocker Drive Encryption is an important security utility tool that provides protection to the computer’s operating system (OS) and data stored on its drives. BitLocker Drive Encryption protects the files stored on the entire drive. It even blocks the hackers from accessing those system files that might leak the password for the encryption. In fact, even if someone tries to access the encrypted data by physically removing the drive from your computer and installing it some other PC, then also BitLocker can protect the data from getting decrypted.

Hence, BitLocker is a Windows data security tool. Currently, it is available only for Windows 8.1 Pro and Windows 8.1 Enterprise editions. If you are using either of these two editions, then you can take the advantages of BitLocker and keep your data encrypted and protected from dubious elements.

To set up and use BitLocker Drive Encryption, perform the following steps:

1. Open the ‘Control Panel’
2. In the Search box of ‘Control Panel’ type ‘BitLocker’ and press ‘Enter’
3. When it opens, click on ‘Manage BitLocker’
4. On the next screen click ‘Turn on BitLocker’
5. After this, BitLocker will start checking your PC's configuration to find out whether or not your PC supports Microsoft's encryption method
6. If your device is eligible for encryption, then a message as shown below will appear
   
   
   
   
   
7. Now, shut down your PC completely and restart it
8. You will see a warning message that your PC’s security settings have changed
9. You can either press ‘F10’ to confirm the change or press ‘Esc’ to cancel
10. Now, your Windows will boot back, you can log in
11. You will see the BitLocker window
12. After a few minutes, a window as shown below will appear with a green check mark next to "Turn on the TPM security hardware" Button.

Now, you are ready to encrypt your drive. But before that you need to save a recovery key to be on safer side. This recovery key will let you access the data of the drive (you are thinking of encrypting) in case something goes wrong.

1. In Windows 8.1, you can save the recovery key in three ways: Save it in your Microsoft account, save it as a file in a USB, or can print the recovery key on paper. You should choose at least two ways for the recovery key.
2. Once you have created two different instances of the recovery key, remove any linked USB drives
3. Click ‘Next’
4. Now, the following window will open and you need to choose a option that best describes your PC.

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1.  The two options are self-explanatory and you can choose either of one as per your requirement
2. Once you've chosen your encryption scheme click ‘Next’
3. Make sure the box next to "Run BitLocker system check” is checked, this ensures that the Windows have run a system check before encrypting your drive.
4. Click ‘Continue’
5. As shown in the following picture, you will see an alert balloon in the system tray informing you that the encryption will begin after the PC restarts

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1.  Manually restart your PC to start BitLocker's disk encryption
2. Once, your PC boots up, log into it
3. You will see another system tray alert informing you that the encryption is in progress

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1.  The process will continue, in the mean time you can work on your PC. However, you might find the PC a bit slow as the encryption process is going on.

The whole process might take a few hours depending on the size of your drive and data stored in it (provided it is a drive already in use). After those few hours, you'll have a BitLocker-encrypted drive. The data you keep on adding to these encrypted drive will continue getting encrypted of its own. Once, your drive is encrypted you can rest assured about the security of your Windows drive data.