Do you encrypt your OS drive?

[Pixelman]

Why/ why not?

 

[Gandalf_The_Grey]

I have one drive in my new laptop and that is encrypted with BitLocker.

 

[Digmor Crusher]

Nope, don't really feel its necessary, plus I've heard too many horror stories.

 

[Andrew3000]

Yes

 

[Zartarra]

The drives of my laptops are encrypted with Bitlocker and protected at boot with password. The drives of my desktop not.

 

[piquiteco]

No, I had a problem once after a crash and my data was corrupted, and I couldn't recover

 

[marcopaone]

Yes with BitLocker.

 

[bayasdev]

BitLocker and LUKS respectively, identity theft it's a real problematic even if you don't carry sensitive documents

 

[Nikos751]

No, I had a problem once after a crash and my data was corrupted, and I couldn't recover

That’s interesting. I would be interested to hear what the case was

 

[ForgottenSeer 69673]

Yes:

I use a ransomware file to encrypt my drive but have the key to decrypt it again

 

[Minimalist]

No, I don't feel a need for it. Possible problems outweigh benefits for me.

 

[Pixelman]

I asked the question because I travel with my laptop (home/work/parents home/side projects with friends).
Because I use separate drives (one for OS one for files) I only encrypted my Files drive with Veracrypt. Thinking about doing it now with my OS drive with Bitlocker.
So I try now to calculate the pros and cons.

 

[mlnevese]

Nope. I'd rather encrypt folders with sensitive data from inside the OS and avoid some headaches Bitlocker causes with backups, etc.

 

[Stopspying]

Yes:

I use a ransomware file to encrypt my drive but have the key to decrypt it again

Had you noticed that I've done similar to that drive?

 

[Stopspying]

Nope. I'd rather encrypt folders with sensitive data from inside the OS and avoid some headaches Bitlocker causes with backups, etc.

That is similar to my thinking, all of the drives with data files onthem are encrypted. The OS drive is backed up seperately to the others, which are backed up independently and synced too. I'd seen reports in the past about Bitlocker slashing with some backups and did not want to have to deal with that. It might sound more complicated but its all set to run automatically and works fine.

 

[piquiteco]

That’s interesting. I would be interested to hear what the case was

In my case, it was a sudden power failure, as soon as it restarted it showed a BSOD, and then it didn't go away. I tried booting with my flash drive to restore it, I couldn't access it again, it said the hard disk partition was corrupted, although Windows showed my drive encrypted with BitLocker, but it was inaccessible, I had to format it, I found it very strange that this had happened

 

[Thales]

LUKS or Bitlocker depends on the OS itself.
If you live alone, then understandable if you don't encrypt the OS drive.
If you have housemates or family members, or the landlord has key to the house then it's necessary to encrypt the drive itself.
Manipulating the unencrypted operation system is easy. Whether Linux or Windows the login password won't do anything.

Another important thing and this happens more then "Evil maid attack". If you wanna sell or repair your drive/laptop/PC once, then the risk of exposing unencrypted part of your drive is HUGE.
Simple format is not enough. Almost 100% of your data is recoverable. and if your PC is not working and repair man needed then 3 times+ wipe may not an option.

I asked the question because I travel with my laptop (home/work/parents home/side projects with friends).
Because I use separate drives (one for OS one for files) I only encrypted my Files drive with Veracrypt. Thinking about doing it now with my OS drive with Bitlocker.
So I try now to calculate the pros and cons.

If you wanna travel with your laptop then it's not a question. Encrypt the drive!

 

[Malleable]

LUKS or Bitlocker depends on the OS itself.
If you live alone, then understandable if you don't encrypt the OS drive.
If you have housemates or family members, or the landlord has key to the house then it's necessary to encrypt the drive itself.
Manipulating the unencrypted operation system is easy. Whether Linux or Windows the login password won't do anything.

Another important thing and this happens more then "Evil maid attack". If you wanna sell or repair your drive/laptop/PC once, then the risk of exposing unencrypted part of your drive is HUGE.
Simple format is not enough. Almost 100% of your data is recoverable. and if your PC is not working and repair man needed then 3 times+ wipe may not an option.


If you wanna travel with your laptop then it's not a question. Encrypt the drive!

Ditto. Always found the native encryption worked the best for me. Last time I checked maybe 2(?) years ago VeraCrypt gave me a performance hit on certain operations approaching 50%. Bitlocker was in the area of 5 - 10% after slowly improving over time. My Macrium Reflect image backups are just for emergency cloning to get back up quickly if necessary but primarily for easy and thorough data backup as I always do a full reinstall after any problems anyway. My backup images go to Bitlocker protected removable data drives with auto-unlock enabled and connected solely for the backup image transfer following second opinion scans, Autoruns and Process Explorer scans with VirusTotal enabled (yes, I know VT could be better), and a Comodo Firewall Free scan. I could do more but that's enough time spent for me.

 

[Ink]

No brainer.

Encryption = Yes.

 

[wat0114]

Yes. with Bitlocker. My laptop has TPM 2.0 security.