Configuring BitLocker On A Windows 7 Ultimate Operating Disk Drive.

Once you have enabled a TPM chip in your PC (you can find out how to do that here) you will find that there are many options open to you. For example, you can enable BitLocker drive encryption.
In order to use BitLocker, you must be running the Ultimate or Enterprise edition of Windows 7 or Windows Vista. It is designed to protect your data by providing full-volume encryption.
It is possible to protect a full operating system drive using BitLocker.  To turn on BitLocker drive encryption for your operating system disk you need to open up your control panel and select System and Security.

You then need to select BitLocker Driver Encryption.

You then need to select to turn on BitLocker for your operating system drive.

BitLocker will then check that your system meets the minimum requirements.

You will then need to select how you would like to store your recovery key. This is different to a startup key or PIN, this key is used to access your files if a problem with your computer stops you from doing so.

You can select to run a system check to ensure that BitLocker can read the recovery and encryption keys before the encryption starts.


You will need to restart your computer so that BitLocker can ensure it can read the recovery key.


Once your computer is back up and running the encryption will start. You can continue using your PC while the encryption is running but this will slow down your PC and may take some time.


Once the drive is finished encrypting, when you go back into BitLocker you will see more options, including suspend and turn off BitLocker.

And that's it. That's how you encrypt an operating system drive using BitLocker!