Encrypting hard drives query

ih8stress

Hi folks :)

I was going to try encrypting some external hard drives and also the internal hard drive if possible on my computer, as I have never set anything up before.

Basically in case of theft, to try and protect any sensitive information (though to be honest with all the data breaches these days, it will probably already be 'out there' for most of it?).
My first option was with VeraCrypt but it looks like there are some current problems with the developer and microsoft

https://github.com/veracrypt/VeraCrypt/issues/1655

My second option was BitLocker but that sounds abit risky, especially if I lose my 'recovery key'.

I am on Windows 10 Pro (previously Win 7), using a local account. As far as I am aware I do not already have BitLocker set up by default

Anyone that knows me on here is aware that despite years of trying I still get stressed and confused by anything techie, and work best on very simple and basic guidelines, ha ha.

I suppose my first question is - is it safe to download and try VeraCrypt as that is my preferred option?

Thanks in advance :)

vacheron

My first question would be, how much "sensitive" information do you have that you feel you need to encrypt your entire hard drive and "multiple" external hard drives?

I have tens of terrabytes of information stored about the place, and if I am honest with myself, only a hadful of megabytes would be of ANY interest to any kind of hacker. About a millionth of my total stored data!

To you regularly take these drives out of the house so they are at a high risk of being lost or stolen? Since the advent of good cloud storage, I have not had to carry physical storage devices with me for at least the last 10 years.

Also, all encryption software by definition will require some kind of key, which will cause you significant issues if you lost it. Not just BitLocker.

To answer your question though, I would not be "trying" any encryption software on any of my drives unless I was very sure of what I was doing, and only when I knew an entire (reliable) image of the drive was fully backed up first.

Frozen_up_north

If you have a Microsoft account, the Bitlocker recovery key will be found in your One Drive Account in the cloud.

While I am sure Veracrypt is a good product, I myself use Bitlocker on my Windows 11 Pro laptop. As Bitlocker is part of Windows, it is well regarded, well documented and widely used. Whether you need to encrypt external drives is another matter, as they will be tied to the PC Bitlocker. Can you not separately store anything sensitive on the external disks, rather than trying to encrypt the whole drives?

Proton Drive (cloud storage) is free for up to 5 GB, it is encrypted with keys only you possess. That is an option that is independent of which PC was used.

mta999

If you have Windows Pro then you can encrypt your drive using bitlocker. Right click.on the drive and choose 'turn bitlocker on"

Choose encrypting it with a password and choose a complex password - not words but random letters and numbers.

you will then save the recover key in case the password fails or you forget it

Obviously make sure you keep the recovery key safe (print it off) and make sure you remember the password, as because you are using a local account it is not stored anywhere

Neil_Jones

Why do you feel you need to encrypt your drives?

Unless you are literally typing out your bank sort code, account number, card numbers, CVC,and expiry date in a document on said drive (which is probably not a good idea) then as alluded to previously 99.99% of it anybody who takes it is not interested in.

Nobody who pinches the drive and manages to decrypt it will be interested in your ripped media collection, your music, your pictures or any documents that don't imply finance or how to get into a bank account.

mta999

The reason people encrypt drives is because there are things on there you don't want other people to see.

PRAISETHESUN

Just because you have nothing to hide, doesn't mean that you should just keep everything in plain view for everyone to see. Encryption should be standard practice for everyone regardless if the encrypted information might be considered valuable or not.

The risks for veracrypt and Bitlocker are more or less the same in my opinion. They are both well known encryption tools. Veracrypt is free and open source, a bit fiddly to set up and use, but not especially complicated. Bitlocker is a bit more user-friendly as it is integrated into Windows, but it is proprietary and means you need to trust Microsoft on some level. Both require a strong password for better encryption - it's very unlikely someone would actually bother to try and crack them, but the risk is still non-zero and a stronger password makes this risk even smaller. Back these passwords up in a safe place (use different passwords for each drive) as well as the bitlocker recovery keys (when you first encrypt a drive you get the option to generate a printable recovery sheet). Using either software, losing the password and/or recovery files would lock you out of the drives without a backup.

ih8stress

Wow, thank you for all the responses, folks.

@vacheron - I realise that sensitive information is subjective and not all of it will need encrypting .
I intend to concentrate on any that might be more relevant.
I seldom go out but sometimes do take a small, portable hard-drive with me (in case of fire/theft), which I acknowledge can be a risk in itself - which contains photos, videos and personal memorabilia.
Unfortunately I am very wary of trusting cloud storage, so try to avoid it if I can, though I recently got a Proton Drive account.

Good comment about the drive image - something else I haven't done for years - oops

@Frozen_up_north - I have a local account on the computer . I do try to store the more sensitive stuff on two external hard drives (ie. more than one copy) as well as the computer.
I do have Proton Drive, thanks.
I am going to look into more of their options (such as the Password Manager and Authenticator).

@mta999 - thank you for your BitLocker information

@Neil_Jones - I do bank switches and have taken application screenprints and made notes of them as my memory is bad BUT I do edit full account details, personal information etc, and don't store any pin numbers.
I also have physical and digital notes of passwords (I know, I know) for websites I visit.
I really need to look into Password Managers but like everything else, it is a minefield for me picking from the various options available.

@PRAISETHESUN - This , exactly.

Thank you to everyone, I take all your comments on board and will look into things further.

Vitor

"I am on Windows 10 Pro (previously Win 7)" - if your computer is quite old it may lack the TPM chip. If you try to turn on BitLocker for your C: drive and your computer doesn't have a TPM, Windows will pop up an error saying "This device cannot use a Trusted Platform Module."

ih8stress

Thanks @Vitor - is it possible to try to turn BitLocker on (to see if my computer has TPM), without it actually proceeding any further, in case I don't want it on after all?

mta999

If you don't have the required hardware you won't even see the bitlocker option