I want to encrypt my hard drive (windows home 7) and my external hard drive 3tb. i have tried Reading amongst links and this forum but could someone please explain in very simple terms to me how i go about this, i do NOT know any of the terminology i have read so far, i just want something easy to download, is this possible or is encryption as knowledge demanding as it seems in the formus, thanks in advance.
Welcome viking69 There are many how-to tutorials, such as here: http://lifehacker.com/a-beginners-guide-to-encryption-what-it-is-and-how-to-1508196946 With the caveat: We generally recommend against average users encrypting their entire drive. Unless you have sensitive files all over your computer, or have other reasons for encrypting the entire thing, it’s easier to encrypt the sensitive files and call it a day. Full disk encryption is more secure, but can also much more problematic if you don’t put in the work to keep everything backed up safely (and then encrypt those backups as well).
Excellent reply, Bob D , thank you. Viking, I would like to add this : avoid DiskCryptor (software) for the present, because if you are using an up to date computer (like one made in the past 5 years or so) for technical UEFI boot reasons it could render your laptop / PC unbootable (although it's very good software, it's only for experts). Also since you are new to this, you need to be aware that it's quite possible to lose access to all your files and data if you forget your password, or if anything else goes wrong with Windows.
Viking, I could recommend Securstar DriveCryptPlusPack for full disk encryption. It costs about 127 Euro, though, maybe about 150 US Dollars, 105 British Pounds, approx . taxes included. But you can get advice and guidance from them. You could also try Veracrypt, free, but the support and advice may not be as fast. . As a short answer to your question, yes you can just download stuff and encrypt, but you need to remember that in layman's terms that if you lock something up in a safe, if you lose the key, or if the safe mechanism gets rusty, you'll have big problems. Can anyone comment on Veracrypt UEFI and booting , because I am not up to date on this and I know that people have been unable to boot (start their laptops) with DiskCryptor for Viking, please? Viking, I could recommend Bestcrypt , Steganos and Kryptel,for Container encryption, and other software whose names I can't remember right now, these all cost maybe, 60 dollars. Still, they would be what you look for, easy encryption, with advice or help if needed for non technical people.
@mirimir I suggest you take your time regarding this subject. There is no simple solution. Drive encryption can be really problematic - especially when you least expect it. For example, if you have to reinstall Windows, revert to a previous Restore Point, install\uninstall softs, etc,. All manner of quirky problems can occur. All one has to do is go to the support forums of encryption software vendors and it will be immediately evident that there are many potential problems and conflicts. Such things, I find, take a willingness to tolerate a lot of problems and frustrations. What, exactly, are you trying to achieve ? I ask, because there might be much more simple solution(s)...
I don't know why nobody suggested the simplest way to achieve the goal: Windows Pro Bitlocker. If you have a self-encrypting drive, zero overhead. What make/model drives are you using?
Exactly. Bitlocker works beautiful. No problems. It simply just works, without any "Oh No !!"-moments. The OP are on Home edition of Win7 though. Yet an upgrade of OS first is easier and safer, then trying out full drive encryption with third-parties. However if you just needs af few files or folders encrypted, then WinRAR or similar are easier.
I find that encryption is NOT that scary and I use it for 100% of my drives - always. Many thousands of hours and years of posts all over the net. My longstanding amazement is that so many folks want to skip important learning pre-requisities and just go full steam ahead. I have used every software mentioned in this thread so far and they all have a place. I wish there was a way to enforce and compel this pre-requisite: The user must have a bonafide backup of anything encrypted and be completely comfortable with doing system disk restores like clockwork before they would be allowed to use FDE (regardless of the software selected). Further, they must have and maintain header backups for recovery purposes --- LUKS, VeraCrypt, TrueCrypt, etc.... all provide wonderful tools but only if you take the time to employ them BEFORE disaster strikes, and it WILL strike. You can count on it! Just read through encryption forums, and not just here at Wilder's, and its the same theme times a thousand. No rescue disk, no header backups, no saved backup on media to restore from. The post "tone" goes critical and while some of us here could "pull a rabbit out of the hat" it just gets too time consuming when its continual requests. I have a longstanding friend whom I have interacted with for years at the TC forums, and then here, go "dark" in public!
Viking, before you do anything else, you need backup your current system so if anything going bad, you can recover what was working before. There are different options for to do this, depend on your experience, patience, money you can afford and how sensitive is your data you are protecting. At minimum, if you have a seperate external hard drive that is bigger than your Windows Home drive, you should backup the Windows drive to the seperate backup hard drive. Maybe you use something like free Macrium Reflect software to make recovery disk and a disk image - but lot of other choices too. (If you have enough extra storage space, you can also backup the 3 TB external hard drive data too. Or if the data is the most important then backup the data from 3TB drive first.) There also are cloud backups services but probably not free, and you have think about how safe they are for your privacy. Do not rely only on Windows own backup & restore function because when you try encryption on system drive, maybe you can not get it back working right way. Do not do any attempts to try to encrypt any data until you have first your safe backup.
Yeah, no. I 'compel' my computer what to do, not the other way around. But, yes, if one doesn't follow the directions, one suffers the consequences.