Laptop Data Encryption

[eightlivesdown]

I have a Windows laptop, and believe that by upgrading to Windows Pro I can encrypt the hard drive. Is there an alternative without the upgrade?

Further, I backup my data to an external drive. How do I encrypt this?

What about backing up to cloud storage; how secure?

Civilian encryption, I believe is not very strong, as for the programs there would be other software available but then it will cost. What level and types of documents are you looking to encrypt ?

All my files - personal stuff, financial records, etc.

I keep these on my laptop hard drive and back up to an external drive.

Bitlocker is the drive encryption available with Windows Promeditions of version 10 and 11.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BitLocker

[quote tanstaafl]Bitlocker is the drive encryption available with Windows Promeditions of version 10 and 11.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BitLocker[/quote]
Yes, Bitlocker is the simplest solution that is available in the built-in Windows tools. The most important thing is not to lose the encryption keys, otherwise you may lose access to your files. In such cases, you can use EFS Recovery, but this does not guarantee a 100% result. You can also use the archiver and set a password for the folder.

Will Bitlocker also encrypt an external drive, i.e. when I back-up my data?

Looking at bitlocker on Microsoft’s website, it turns out there’s a product called Bitlocker To Go that works on removable drives.

There are some requirements to using Bitlocker.
How old is your laptop?

My laptop is new.

Likely windows 10 or even 11 then.

Have a read of this docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/security/information-protection/bitlocker/bitlocker-frequently-asked-questions to get a feel if you’re comfortable with enabling Bitlocker.