Windows 8 Full Hard Disk Encryption - Suggestions Please!

[Fazza]

One of the schools we support now has several Windows 8 laptops and they want to perform a Full Hard Disk Encryption like they have on their Windows 7 laptops.

 

On the Windows 7 laptops we/they use TrueCrypt because it works and it's Open Source. Truecrypt wont encrypt a whole hard disk on a Windows 8 laptop. Neither will DesLock.

 

Do any of you know of any encryption software out there that will fully encrypt a whole hard disk on a Windows 8 laptop?

 

Thanks.

[pantscat]

Bitlocker? That would do the job very well indeed.

[spadam]

Bitlocker worked a treat for me.. Looked into it when we got quoted over £50/machine + £26/annum for DESLock+ by our managed service provider.

 

Followed this guide to enable BitLocker without a TPM...

[Fazza]

I thought with Bitlocker without a TPM chip you needed a USB memory stick for it to function or was that just Windows 7?

[Norphy]

Yes, that's still the case. The USB stick stores the encryption key since there is no TPM to do it for you.

[spadam]

Hmm.. Maybe I've missed something but we use Bitlocker without a USB or TPM (Windows 8.1). User's just enter a password pre-boot to decrypt the partition and have recovery keys saved elsewhere if needed. I never used BitLocker on Win7 so don't know what's different there.

 

If there's a problem with our setup that anyone knows about please let me know.

Edited April 9, 2014 by spadam

[Fazza]

I never used BitLocker on Win7 so don't know what's different there.

 

The difference is that with Windows 7 you need to have a TPM chip to make use of it. Thanks to this thread I have now been made aware that Microsoft has changed this prerequisite and a TPM chip is no longer required with Windows 8/8.1

 

 

All I need to know now is what's wrong with BitLocker that is causing people to pay up to £150 for a paid for solution or are companies profiteering?

[jamesbmarshall]

All I need to know now is what's wrong with BitLocker that is causing people to pay up to £150 for a paid for solution or are companies profiteering?

 

Nothing - although I'll bet it's the usual problem that Microsoft does a lot of great stuff but a really bad job of making sure people know about it (it's harder than you think).

[detjo]

I thought with Bitlocker without a TPM chip you needed a USB memory stick for it to function or was that just Windows 7?

Yes, that's still the case. The USB stick stores the encryption key since there is no TPM to do it for you.

 

Not so. You can set it to prompt for a password on bootup, which replaces the USB stick idea, and store the recovery key in Active Directory.

 

.. and, you only need to encrypt the data, not the full HDD. It's a lot quicker and any added data gets encrypted as it's added.

Edited April 28, 2014 by detjo

[SYNACK]

Bitlocker ftw

[matt40k]

I don't think BitLocker is as mature a product as say CheckPoint in terms of end-user gloss, with that said, it does what is says on the tin so does it really matter? If you've got a BitLocker included in your windows enterprise license, makes sense to use it! Guess you would go for something else if you have win7pro oem licenses and you don't have a Microsoft agreement.