How to enable BitLocker Drive Encryption in Windows Vista

In Part I of my series on encrypting a hard drive with BitLocker, I discussed the requirements that have to be met in order to use BitLocker and also described the steps needed to create the necessary partitions in Vista. Once you have completed these steps, you can now turn on or enable BitLocker in Vista.

In order to configure BitLocker on Vista, you must make sure you are logged on as an Administrator. Note that these steps below are for turning BitLocker on with TPM (Trusted Platform Module). I will write another post on how to use BitLocker without TPM.

Turn on BitLocker

Step 1: Go to Start, Control Panel, and click on Security and then click on BitLocker Drive Encryption.

Step 2: If UAC pops up, just click Continue. Then click on the Turn on BitLocker link next to the Windows drive. Note that if your drives are not partitioned correctly and your computer does not support TPM, then you’ll see error messages like below:

Luckily, Microsoft has come out with a nice tool to make partitioning your hard drive for BitLocker super easy! No need to reformat or anything, however it’s only for Windows Vista Ultimate! It’s part of the Vista Ultimate Extra and it’s called BitLocker and EFS enhancements. It’s an optional update you will see in the available updates list.

To use it, go to Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools, BitLocker and choose BitLocker Drive Preparation Tool. Follow the instructions and reboot your computer. After that, if you are still getting a message saying A TPM as not found, you’ll have to either update your BIOS if your motherboard really does support it or you’ll have to follow the steps to enable BitLocker without TPM, which will be a future post.

For now, I will assume you have gotten past the two possible snags and you can click on Turn on BitLocker.

Step 3: Now on the Save the recovery password page, choose where you want to save the password that can be used to recover all of your encrypted files in case something gets corrupted.

It’s best to save the recovery password in multiple locations if you can that way you can be sure to recover your data even if one gets lost, deleted, etc.

Step 4: Now on the Encrypt the selected disk volume page, check the box Run BitLocker System Check and click Continue.

Go ahead and restart the computer when the message pops up to reboot. During the boot, BitLocker will verify that the computer is compatible with BitLocker and prepare it for encryption. If everything is good, you’ll see the encryption progress bar show up.

After everything is done, the entire operating system volume will be encrypted along with a unique recovery password. When you logon next time, there will be no difference. That’s it! You have now successfully turned on BitLocker on your Vista computer! Enjoy! Post a question if something is not working.