How to encrypt C: drive on Windows 10 Home?
We think there are two reasons so that you want to encrypt the C: drive.
1. To protect the computer from attack, you have to encrypt the C: drive by BitLocker, but do you know the hacker still can attack your computer even if you have encrypted the C: drive by BitLocker?
In fact, the C: drive will be in "Unlocked" status after turning on your computer. In this situation, anyone can access your C: drive or attack your computer.
2. To protect your personal files from unauthorized access, you have to encrypt the C: drive on Windows 10 Home. However, do you know storing your personal files on C: drive is not safe?
We think you don't realize it. In fact, storing your personal files on C: drive is not safe. For example, if you mistakely delete one file and want to get it back, its recovery result depends on whether this file was overwritten by new data.
After data loss, we think you don't realize continuing to use this computer is a write operation process to your C: drive. Once the deleted file is overwritten, there is no way to recover it, even data recovery software cannot do this job.
However, if you store your personal files to another partition, instead of C: drive, the data will be safe and the data recovery chance is more than C: drive. How to do it?
Step 1: Shrink C: drive
1. Right click My Computer or This PC -> Manage -> Storage -> Disk Management.
2. Right click C: drive and select "Shrink volume".
3. Enter the amount of space to shrink in MB. For example, 10240MB, your C: drive will be reduced 10GB.
4. After shrinking C: drive, you will see the unallocated space after C: drive.
Step 2: Create a new partition
1. Right click the unallocated space and select "New Simple Volume".
2. Here you open New Simple Volume Wizard, click "Next".
3. Specify the volume size and click "Next". Then, assign drive letter to it and click "Next".
4. In the "Format Partition" window, set the file system to NTFS of the new volume and click "Next".
5. Then, click "Finish". Within few seconds, a new partition has been created.
6. Transfer your personal files from C: drive to this new partition.
Step 3: Encrypt this new partition with M3 BitLocker Loader for Windows
1. Download M3 BitLocker Loader for Windows on your PC and install the app.
2. Launch the M3 BitLocker Loader for Windows app.
3. Choose the drive that you want to encrypt with BitLocker from the list of drives M3 BitLocker Loader for Windows identifies on your PC.
4. Click Encrypt beside the drive you're working with.
5. Enter the password you want to use to encrypt your drive and click Next.
6. Save the recovery key as a backup in case you ever forget your password and click Next.
7. Activate BitLocker encryption on the drive you selected in Windows 10 Home.
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