Many people said they need an encrypted hard drive to keep their data safe. In some cases, only an encrypted folder is good enough; yet, in many other cases, a completely encrypted drive is a better choice for providing stronger protection. Is it really necessary to get an encrypted hard drive on your laptop?
Definitely, you need to protect your hard drive well when it is full of important and sensitive data. That’s why people want to get an encrypted hard drive on laptop.
Use an Encrypted Hard Drive to Protect Your Data
Disk encryption is a technology which protects information by converting it into unreadable code that cannot be deciphered easily by unauthorized people.– According to Wikipedia
To encrypt a hard drive is a good way to protect your data. I don’t advise you to finish the hard drive encryption by using a tool casually. Why? That is because your entire hard disk may get crashed after encrypting. Because of this, you should backup the files before encryption in case of any unexpected accidents.
Backup software suggestion: MiniTool ShadowMaker.
BitLocker
Speaking of hard drive encryption, I have to mention BitLocker, which is an encryption tool contained in Microsoft Windows versions starting with Windows Vista. By enabling BitLocker Drive Encryption, you can protect the entire volume.
The AES encryption algorithm in XTS mode or CBC (cipher block chaining) mode was adopted by BitLocker and there’s a 128-bit or 256-bit key. The CBC has been applied to individual sectors to enhance effect.
Hardware Encrypted Hard Drive
In fact, the Encrypted Hard Drives are a new kind of hard drives. Two main features of Encrypted Hard Drives are:
- It is self-encrypted at a hardware level.
- It gives support for full disk hardware encryption.
Encrypted Hard Drives offload the cryptographic operations to hardware to achieve following goals:
- Optimize BitLocker performance.
- Reduce CPU usage.
- Decrease power consumption.
Encrypted Hard Drives are able to encrypt data at a fast speed, so the BitLocker deployment will be finished quickly, without affecting too much on the productivity. (Click here to know more details of Encrypted Hard Drives)
Device Encryption
The device encryption is a function that has been introduced by Windows in 2013 (since Windows 8.1). This action helps to turn Windows from a boring and old desktop operating system to a portable and convenient OS.
Nowadays, the device encryption becomes a standard feature on Windows 10 laptops. Besides, device encryption is a wonderful function for iPhones, Android Smartphones, as well as Windows Phones.
Attention: want to protect your data on Windows 10 laptop? You need this fabulous data recovery software for Windows 10.
However, the device encryption is not available for all Windows 10 laptops. This is closely related to the version you are running on laptop.
How to check on a laptop running an older version of Windows 10?
- Click on the Start button and choose Settings (you can also open Settings app by other ways).
- Select the first option – System.
- Scroll down to choose About option from the left side of the System page.
- Go to see the bottom of the About page: if you can see a Device Encryption and a button that says “Turn off”, you can confirm that your laptop contains this feature; if you can’t find this section, it means the device encrypted is not supported.
How to check on a laptop running a new version of Windows 10?
- Type system information into the Cortana search box.
- Right click on the System Information (Desktop app) in the results list.
- Choose Run as administrator.
- Scroll down to the bottom of the System Information window.
- You can now check the Device Encryption Support: if it says Meets prerequisites, it means the device encryption is supported; if it says Reasons for failed automatic device encryption, it means this feature is not available on your laptop.
